Happily Fascinated

This week probably couldn't have gone much better if I had thought about it. In fact, all my thoughts prior to this week were reminiscent of last year. They were all, "What if I must be the super strict, mean teacher I had to pretend to be at times last year." Well, that is not the case at all. I have had to use my discipline chart and also have small talks with students, but I feel those small moments kept me from having to play Miss Viola Swamp for a day/week, etc.

I have a great group of kids...ones I will speak about individually at some point in the year and ones you've already read about. I have some struggling learners and some who I will struggle to keep engaged and academically occupied. I don't think the range of my kids is as vast as it was last year, but it doesn't really matter, because every year is new kids with new challenges.

Some first week stories:
--During ME Box sharing time, the child who I was warned about (by his father) about his "weird eyes" demonstrated his "weird eyes". He actually called it an usual talent...I called it weird and kind of gross. To truly understand what he can do, think about looking at a person when one eye is off to the side and one is straight towards you. He told me that when he does this, he sees 2 of everything. Even better...when he finished, another kid asked him to try and teach the trick to him. Yeah, we'll see if I can find something better for the two of them to do.

--"My mama said...she would bring my Me box to school." Well, first of all, who's responsibility is that? In 4th grade, we take responsibility for our actions and forgetting our homework at home is something only we can be responsible for. Oh and, we still don't have your Me box (after 3 days).

--I have a student who I'll refer to as Carson. After the first 2 days of school, I was a bit concerned. I hadn't had any kids jump out as behavior problems, except for Carson. He was that kid that needed another warning, already. He needed to be told 3 times to not do something that he shouldn't be doing already. He was setting bad examples for other students and was proud of it. That was until I figured him out. Yes, it's been 4 days of school and I think I have him pegged. Carson is very smart. He is also a bit OCD (non-diagnosed, but the same OCD I am). Things have to be put in place at his desk before he can do something else. He needs lots of things to occupy himself. He also needs something to keep his body moving while he's working...which I figured out was a soccer ball under his feet. Today he brought one from home and it was under his desk. Usually, they are to be stored in our recess basket, but I noticed how it helped him concentrate, because his feet were moving so his upper body could work. I told him the ball would be okay under his desk as long as it stayed under HIS desk. I completely forgot about it because he was so good.
While we were at recess, I had my good friend, portable mate, and co-worker come talk to me about Carson. She has girls that visit her classroom during lunch and recess for social skills. The only problem with this situation is that they usually talk and play with themselves. Well, she told me that she has seen Carson (a few times), talking to these girls and playing with them. In fact, when they needed a ball and he had one, he gave it to them. One even wanted to hold his hand and he let them. Most kids would walk away, and especially not let them hold their hands, but this is when I realized what a caring heart Carson has. He is the only kid I've seen initiate contact with these girls and not because a teacher asked. It's nice to see that some kids ignore all the stereotypes and labels given to people and are just nice!

--Today we made Life Maps (focusing on important moments in our lives). I mentioned in my first blog of the year that I have a child with special needs. Well, today he fascinated me in a way I have never seen in person. I began by asking him to write his birthday on his life map. That was the last time I had to ask him to write. 10 minutes later, he came to my desk and said that he ran out of space. I handed him more paper and took the one he had so that I could examine it. This child remembers specific dates for events in his life. For example, "October 13, 1997-I had a tube put in. August 23, 1999-My dad had surgery." This went on for 3 pages. I have no doubt in my mind that he remembers each of these dates. It reminded me of savants that I had seen on Oprah years ago. Savants can remember different things, and dates are what this particular kid specializes in. Amazed and fascinated are the only 2 words I can think of to describe what this child did today.

Miracles can happen!

Today was the first day since the student I named Disrepectful has been in my classroom, that I've seen signs of progress and REspectful behavior. Because I've not been teaching very long, my bag of tricks is small (like a clutch you carry on a date). In my few months of experience, I have learned that one thing always works...BRIBERY! The kids came in this morning to find a ticket on their desk. These tickets are used to buy luxuries or privileges in the class (example: using my chair for the day or sitting by a friend at lunch). My class thrives for these tickets. They will pretty much do anything to get the tickets. Some of them need to earn as many as they can because they also have to use these tickets to buy them things they need in the class (extra bathroom breaks or pencil lead). Like I said, the kids will do anything for these tickets!

The all received the morning ticket for showing up to school today (I made that up once they asked what it was for...you didn't even have to be on time to receive it). I then held up a bag of tickets and told them that my goal was to pass out every last ticket by the end of today. I warned that if there were only 2 people on task, then 2 people would get to share all of those tickets. But, if everyone was on task, everyone would get a few or many tickets. They all wanted this bag of tickets badly! Everyone was seated and working and their voices were quiet. I gave out tickets like I had endless amounts of them.

It gets better...I didn't raise my voice all morning and I didn't get upset/frustrated with Disrespectful once. Unlike the other kids, he does not have many tickets, because he has not earned them. BUT...I complimented him every time he was doing something close to right. I gave him ticket after ticket after ticket. He was smiling and so happy with himself, knowing that he can do the right thing. We made a deal that he could earn "tent time" if he continued like this all day ("tent time" aka "another form of bribery leftover from Writing Camp"). To my shock and awe, he earned his reward! Yay for miracles!

Another step made in the right direction with this child was during bus duty today. If you read my blog from Tuesday about him refusing to hold my hand on the way to the bus because he failed to follow directions, there is an update. Today I realized that I didn't see him yesterday when I walked the bus riders to the bus...in fact, I remember seeing him coming from another direction when I got around to the bus. So, today I told him that he had to hold my hand so that I could make sure he got to the bus and took the correct route. He didn't give me his hand, but he did let me take it. He didn't "hold" my hand, but he put it straight out so I could hold his. It was enough of a success for me that I felt good about today and the future for our class.

Tomorrow's blog will be about the "joys" of field trips! ha!