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Teaching: Day 5 - [Art + ... Woof!]

A lot of my kids are such complete ARTISTS...

*in awe.

My favorite is the index card on the upper left:




Some of my students like to hang in/around my classroom before school, during lunch, and after school [is it conceited of me, if that just makes me positively... *GLOW... ? ^^].  Oftentimes, they'll be with friends of theirs that aren't in my classes.

Today, during lunch, I was in my class with my door open, as usual... prepping, grading, reading, chatting on GTalk [hahaha, don't tell on me!!!]. I had to step outside to take a trip to the water fountain near my room. I rinsed my hands real quick (they always get SO whiteboard-marker-y!), then went back in.

During class after lunch, one of my seventh grade girls came up to me, smiling:

"Miss ______! Miss ______! My friend says you're SOOOOO skinny. She asked if when we hug you, you break?"

I lol'd. [ ::note:: I haven't been feeling fit lately; more like... roly-poly... it's from all that sitting around, methinks... and that time of month may be approaching, hahaha]

And then she smiled real big and said, "We tell our friends you're SO nice. Except if you're hungry because you don't eat enough lunch! But you let us eat in class"--[yup, so long as they don't leave any trace of food anywhere, particularly Red Hot Cheetoh redness on papers!]-- "and if you're grumpy, we could probably just feed you and you'll be happy right?"

HAHAHAHAHAHA.... *wags tail crazily.

Teaching: Day 1 - [FIRST DAY EVAAAR! Intro + Making Class Rules]

I only did intro and rules/etc. stuff today, really. But instead of just listing out my rules, I let them gimme suggestions first, but made sure they explained their reasoning/justified their rules. So if they said they should get to sit wherever they want, I said how come or what would be the condition, and they'd say that if they talked too much then I should separate the pairs (remember my tables in my classroom from pics? They are double-seat-ers). But then I told them I don't want to use class time to move people around, so they said I should move them from then on (assign seats). Their 'chance' refreshes when the new semester starts in January.

If they suggested rules like 'we can chew gum in class' I had to apologize because even though I don't mind gum really, it's a school policy, and I have no say on that. Same goes for iPods (though I did say they're free to give me music to play in class [after I listen to it at home first]).

Other rules were like, they're allowed to eat so long as they don't make a mess and it doesn't disrupt class time / their attention / etc.

I also asked for rules for ME, and they said that I should respect them and not be mean all the time and help them with homework. All things I'm more than happy to comply to ^^

I'm glad I did it this way, because there's more ownership regarding the rules, and I can remind them that they made them, it's their rules. We also talked a little bit about consequences for breaking rules [and so I learned the forms of discipline they really hate, versus the ones they consider to be more mild], and rewards for good behavior. And then I told them to keep ME accountable too, and that if I break rules I agreed to, I should have consequences. =X Hehe...

I promised them that any rules I give them, they are welcome to challenge politely/verbally [not by breaking them!], and if they can convince me through reasoning/justification that my rule is unfair or needs to be tweaked, I'll change it. And this is open throughout the year.

The last thing I did was have them write their given first/last name on the top half of the lined side of an index card, and then what they want me to call them on the same side, bottom half. They were like, 'so... anything?' And I said yup, any nickname or shortened version of your name, or whatever. "Will you call me Poncho?" "Yup. All year. And in front of your parents." Hehe ^^v

And then on the back, the blank side, I told them to fill up the space with writing or drawings or whatever. Just something that is THEM, not like, 'Hi Ms __________' [though some wrote that]. I'm going through these now, and some are really clever and artistic. Others are boring. But yeah, I figured this is a good way to sorta get to know my students =]

Pretty much after that most classes didn't have a lot of time until the bell rang. The only class that had A LOT of free time was my EL (English Learners) Algebra-Readiness (8th graders) class. They thought I was a real riot though, because my Spanish sucks hahaha, but now I can understand why speaking English all the time is so daunting, because you're always so afraid of screwing up. Hopefully with how much I mess up and how much help I need [and with the laughs I get] they'll be encouraged to speak broken English with me. I wrote their names in Korean too (phonetically) and they enjoyed that. I told them to call me Anita, and they love that too. I'm................. really happy that I have my EL class.

So tired. When I got home [left after a short meeting after my 5th period, since I don't have a sixth; I think other days I will stay and do work in the classroom, but today I needed to go home haha], I immediately fell asleep on the floor for a smidge over 3 hours. It felt good, but I didn't feel super rested. I'm exhausted now still but I gotta get some work done XD

P.S. They really love my teddy bear =] So he travels around the room with me, and sits on my chair in the front of the class if I'm writing on the board. He's also in charge of the Tootsie Rolls. ^^ Hopefully I remember my camera tomo and I can take some pics.