This morning in reading, we had a lady come in to do a lesson with the children in reading. She did this great activity with them called "sketch and stretch". Our story this week was "The Secret Life of Trees" and it is a nonfiction book about... Trees! She told the children what they were going to do and put the indicator to be accomplished that day in the forma of a question for them to focus on. This is a great idea and keeps the children focused on the task at hand. The "sketch and stretch" activity was great. She gave them each a piece of printer paper and had them fold it in half 3 times so they would have 8 rectangles on the paper. They traced the fold lines with their pencils so they could see the boxes easily. She told them that as they read, they will be putting the important key words in the boxes along with a quick sketch to help them remember for later. They did this for the whole story. She read a page and had them pick the word, they read a page with a partner and as a group picked a word, they read individually and picked a word as a group; it was a great way to keep them engaged in the story! When they were finished, she reviewed each box with them and had them recall details about each key word; they did really well with this and usually my children struggle to recall information from a text! Once she left, she only had a short time with us, we turned it into a writing activity (which I led!) and we wrote a complete sentence about each word on our paper. I did the first sentence as a demonstration, and we did the second sentence together (I wrote them on the white board) and then they were to do the other 6 on their own. They did great sentences on their own. I was very impressed by how much their writing has improved since the beginning of the school year.
In other news for this morning...
I had a student during science say, "don't make me get my knife". This is not surprising (believe it or not) from my children; however, I still had to do a write up and send her to the ISS teacher. Needless to say, she is suspended from school tomorrow. When she came back to the class after seeing the ISS teacher, we went to lunch and I was told that she was throwing mayonnaise at other students... I had to move her to table on her own. Then at recess, which she wasn't participating in due to her prior behavior, she was deliberately disobeying me by not standing on the wall, but about 3 inches away from it and smiling at me and laughing like it was a joke. She continued to kick the grass and the wall and not follow directions. I decided it was best if she didn't go to art today since she had been so disruptive all morning. Ms. J, my coaching teacher, told me to take her back to the ISS teacher for the rest of the day. The ISS teacher told me I needed the paper work to take her out of the room as well as to call her mom and tell her. We went back to the room and I called her mom who told me she was going to come up to the school to talk to her... Luckily, she was very nice and agreeable to this situation today. Then I wrote her up for the 2nd time today and took her to the ISS teacher. Her mom found us in the hall and took her out for the rest of the afternoon.
The thing that makes me so sad about this type of situation is that she does this as a cry for attention and even though I praise her for her good work that she does, she still continues to act out and cause problems in the room. I went to talk to our science lab teacher today during planning because I was kind of depressed about this little girl, and she is always so uplifting about things. She told me that it is so unfortunate that this has to happen, and that the worst part is that we can build these children up all day/ week, but when they go home for the night or weekend they come back forgetting everything we did the day before- it all gets torn to pieces at home. I just wish I could take these children home with me and give them everything they deserve in life.
Another thing, and I know this is getting long, I'm sorry, but today some of my children found out that the interns last day is in 2 weeks... They are so sad and one of my favorite boys, R, said to me, "Ms. Robinson, why do all the good teachers have to leave?" I explained to him that I still needed to finish school and that he would be just fine with Ms. J.He then told me that he wanted to leave when I left.... Bless his heart! Also, word spread quickly that Ms. LJ and myself would only be here for 2 more weeks and the children went crazy... They are becoming very clingy to us and hugging us all the time and giving us sweet pictures, etc. I am really going to miss these kiddies...
I can honestly say that this experience has been a roller coaster of emotions, but it has been way worth the ride. I can honestly tell how much I have made a difference in my children's lives and to me, that is worth the struggles that I have been through. I have so been wishing for November 20th to get here fast, and I still do because I so desperately want to get home, but I am going to miss seeing these children every day. I am excited that I won't have Monday or Friday classes next semester, so I hope I can visit them in my free time and keep them encouraged and happy!
Again, thanks for sticking with me through this long post! I am just trying to cherish and capture all the things that happen in these last few days with my class!!
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