First, we had a field trip today to the Virginia Living Museum. This is the third year I've been. I LOVE this field trip. However, the first field trip of the year is always a little bit nerve-wracking. You don't know how students are going to behave outside of the normal classroom setting. Especially children who are normally behavior problems. We took all the precautions. My team-teacher and myself combined our two homerooms and THEN divided them up, separating the behavior problems and giving the behavior problems to my team-teacher, myself, and a teacher's aide. We had awesome parent chaperones who helped out with the other kids as well.
Despite one of the buses being late, and having to completely change our schedule once we got there, the kids were FANTASTIC! My student who is bipolar (but on medication), asked to hold my hand and then walked around with me all day with not a single problem. One of my other boys (also a behavior problem and a child with some special needs) made excited screeching sounds at everything he saw. While it wasn't ideal, he really couldn't control himself and he was so well-behaved. 6 major behavior problems....all with near-perfect behavior today. Completely incredible.
After school, I met with my mentor from last year. She's only a few years older and we have similar teaching styles, so we exchange thoughts often. She teaches the 3rd grade gifted cluster, so she had alot of my kids last year. I went to her today to discuss the possibility of doing novel studies with those kids this year, rather than using the basal reader (reading textbook). Those stories are so boring. The kids dread using them, I dread using them. I think I'm going to put them back in the closet where they belong, at least with that group. So I feel better about making a change that I think will benefit all of us.
And tomorrow is Friday and I have an appointment at the salon after work.
Things are looking good.
1 comment:
Wow! Sounds like you had a pretty decent field trip! Our first two were pretty good as well... shocking.
Also, about the reading texts: you're lucky you have an option! Our principal DEMANDS that we use the "core series" (McGraw Hill... fairly crappy), and comes in to make sure that we're teaching from that series. Enjoy the freedom and flexibility you have with the reading selections!
Hope all is well, and thank you for your continued comments! I catch up on your saga every few days, so keep the stories coming! Also, I tried viewing your video, but it never completely loaded. Good effort; hopefully it works on other people's computers!
Peace!
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