Randy's First Days

Students are back at the program. I decided to start with establishing classroom atmosphere...mostly I copied what Tim (the 5th grade teach at Oak Grove suggested). The first day I gave the students a survey basically asking them "how they like to be treated by their friends/teacher" and "how they studied best." After they filled out the form, we went over the questions and asked them if they'd agree to behave in the manner that they suggested. The majority agreed. Then I asked them who is perfect in the room. Of course, no one raised their hand. So I replied that I don't expect perfection; however, I do expect everyone to try to hold themselves to the rules.



Next, (more Tim) I asked them what "ridicule", "responsibility" were. We looked up the words in the dictionary and then the kids broke up into groups of 4 and made skits about the words. The skits were simple..but reinforced the idea. I noticed that the more I talk the less the kids pay attention, so I really try to make it about them.



The day finished off with "Minefield" which is a team building game where the students have to traverse across a minefield (5 rows of 5 "mines") and have to figure out the pattern. They had a lot of fun.



Yesterday, we started off by defining "reputation". Then we did "pair work" and the students had to come up with types of repuations. They did a nice job..coming up with over 30. They started to yell out more and more reputations as it became more clear as to what a reputation is.



The last activity was some basic Improv. We played "fortunately/Unfortunately"(kids make of stories) and "one word story". We also did 2 truths and a lie. Each game reveals alot about the confidence and ability of the students.



The challenges that I can see are some of the students have a LOT of homework and some have virtually none. So, how do I allow students who need more time to do homework and need my help and still work with the students who have more free time. I feel like I have more control of the classroom this year. I still am committed to have the students self-regulate; however, I realize that I will have to work hard in the beginning to establish what is acceptable and what is not.