Spring Fever

I don't know if any of you have ever been in an elementary school in the days leading up to spring break, or another major holiday, but I have to tell you it's bananas.

The students are all going nuts because they are itching to get outside and go play. The weather is so nice and the sun is out. And from the teacher's perspective that makes things difficult to teach. But at the same time, the teachers need a break just as much as the kids do. I know I plan to do a lot of work, of the planning and portfolio variety, over this next week.

One thing I learned over the past few days is to join the students and make the lessons work with the time of year. For instance, our puppet from 3rd grade has been missing for the past few days and the students started to notice. Today she called us on her cell phone during class. She wanted to tell us that she was in Martinique (a French speaking island in the Caribbean) and that she was sending us some pictures of herself there. Obviously I was just acting on the phone and I was the one who photo shopped Fifi's picture onto backgrounds of Martinique. But doing that seemed to be what the kids needed to be engaged to talk and write about clothing on this last Friday before break.