hot & cold

So sometimes I really despise this job, and other times I really adore it. Today, I actually like it. Even though I'm quite sick at the moment (nasty cough, fever, cold, etc.), I'm in a relatively good mood. Out of bed a little late this morning, I said, "It's gonna be a good day." And it was!

We started with the Student of the Month (S.O.M.) assembly this morning. As I have both 4th and 5th graders in my class, I like to choose one from each grade for this monthly assembly. I also had a band S.O.M., which was nice. All three of my S.O.M.s' parents showed up, making all of the winners extremely happy. The assembly went well, and my kids were pretty well behaved.

After the assembly, we had a 10-minute review of homework, which was writing 10 sentences (using the words "its," "their," "they're," "too," and so forth). I still have A LOT of work to do with my students, but I suppose they're a little better off than at the beginning of the year. A hard thing for a first-year teacher to understand is that she will NOT be able to make every student perform perfectly on everything. I'm slowly coming to grips with this fact, but it's excruciating.

After the assembly, the class had library and computer, and I was actually productive during this prep time! (I graded, prepped a lot, and got almost everything done for my morning stuff!)

We then had our first-ever cloze (yes, it's spelled correctlly) reading test, where students filled in a story's blanks with words I read. According to a spelling seminar I'd attended on Monday, it's far better to use cloze tests than the traditional word-list-on-Monday, spelling-test-on-Friday format. (This spelling program insists that our usual way of doing spelling is ineffective because it only tests short-term memory, and leaves long-term memory and writing transfer by the wayside. I can't help but agree.) We'll see how this thing works out long-term.

I then had the kids journal again, this time about what kind of job they'd like to do (I left it reaaaaaaaaaaaally open), and why. I'm excited to read their responses. The vast majority of them really like journaling, and I like reading what they write, so I think it's a good thing. We're starting to fine-tune everything, too, via the 6 Traits philosophy. This week, we focused on conventions, and next week we'll probably be focusing on word choice. Score.

We are also working on a class newspaper. The project was kind of thrown out from before, since I'd misplaced many of the students' work. (I recovered it last night, luckily!) This time around, I'm letting each student choose what s/he wants to write about, which has the students more engaged in the project.

Before lunch, we had math, which I still enjoy teaching. Today was a bit like pulling teeth, though, and I got a little frustrated with the class. I just wished they'd work with me, even when we're not doing the most interesting of things, and take some stock in their education. Bleh. At one point, I was so fed-up with the lack of effort/participation that I took the book I was teaching with and smacked it against my forehead in exasperation! :P

Lunch and recess were a welcome break, and I ate lunch with some other teachers in the library. (It's a big hub of activity, by the way.)

I allowed students to do make-up work after lunch, filling in any gaps in the grade book. A lot of them worked really hard, so that was nice. We then had reading buddies with one of the 2nd grade classes (the teacher's a newbie and a friend of mine), so that was some nice academic time for the kids and down time for the teachers. Beautiful!

At the end of the day, we had our weekly class meeting, which went ok. The kids are getting better at listening to each other, and maybe it's because I've been stricter with them on that lately. It's just SO hard for them to stop talking for some reason. They talk over me, over each other, over pretty much anything. It's frustrating and annoying, but they're improving just a bit. Of course, I don't tell them this often, because then they'd begin to slip again.

We did a quick clean-up, then raffle, and that was the day. We spent the last 30 minutes of the day outside, as the class chose to use their EFT (earned free time) with recess today. During EFT, I met with one of my "problem" students (who's actually a "secret favorite" of mine), and had a big talk with him. From the conversation, I learned: he DOES like school (he admitted it!!!); he's interested in math, science, and writing (woo hooo!); he cares about how he does in class (makes things MUCH easier!); he's worried about his future. All of these characteristics make for a good student, I think. The only problem is, I don't think he realizes how awesome he is. He's so used to getting in trouble with other teachers that he now lives up to *that* role. I think, though, that I've won him over, since I see his potential. He's actually been very helpful in the class this week, and I hope that he'll continue that behavior.

Finally, one of my darling little Spanish-speakers came over to me during recess/EFT. "Podemos leer en español?" ("Can we read in Spanish?") "Claro que si," ("Of course!") I'd replied. We read part of a book I had in the classroom, and a flock of interested girls soon formed. A lot of the students LOVE hearing Spanish, and for some reason, they're all geeked out that I can speak, write, and read in the language. So my little Spanish-speaker and I tried to teach our little group a bit of Spanish. It was very enjoyable.

All in all, a good day. Hopefully, next week will be just as good, though I'm not so sure. In a few weeks, my little (21-year-old) sister will be here for 7 days to visit. You BET that I'll be putting her to work in the classroom! :) I'm gonna have to build up her arrival so that the class is extra good when she's here. Ok, that's all for now. Three day weekend, here I come!!