Tuesday was rough.
It started out poorly when I woke up and thought it was Friday. What a disappointment. I was so physically tired as well as mentally exhausted. This is probably too much information, but I forgot to put on deodorant. It was that kind of morning.
In all fairness my first few classes went well. 5th grade was antsy because they were going on a field trip to the symphony, but they were troopers and rolled with the lesson more or less as planned. 3rd grade went well too. The students were generating so much language about the pictures I felt like such a proud mama bear. I really have taught these kids so much more than I thought I could.
The day took a turn for the worse when I got to 1st grade. The first class was my "show-off" class, they are always trying to impress me and I love them to pieces. But even they were a little confused because I was still working out the kinks in my lesson. I worked with my CT during our break and tweaked a few of the things I was doing. Then when I got to the second class they were not ready for French. It took far too long to have them come to the carpet and settle down but after praising the few who were doing their jobs, things started to fall into place.
Do you all remember V? Well that same student I mentioned a while back was having a really hard time getting settled for class. Once things got going he kind of participated, though not sitting criss-cross I thought for him that was acceptable. A different boy, K, had a birthday over the weekend so we needed to sing happy birthday to him. At that point V flipped out and started being, excuse the rudeness, a tool. He was completely disrespecting K. So I sent V to his seat. Once he was there he started cursing. Nothing bad by adult standards, but no 6 year old child should be saying "damn that". My CT heard that and raised her voice very loudly and told him to get in the hall right away. Before leaving the room V flung his chair and threw the trashcan and recycling bin across the room.
At the end of our class I had to have a discussion with my students about making good choices. I kind of flubbed through what I wanted to say. My CT wanted it to come from me to mean more to the students. She guided me and helped me with the major points that needed to be discussed. I know that the more practice I have the more articulate I will become. The classroom teacher chimed in at the end as well and helped get the point across.
I feel badly for V because he is a good kid. But he has very poor skills when it comes to dealing with his emotions. Everything is unfair to him and he takes things very personally. But he's a bright kid so I want him to do well. And at the same time the rest of the students need to feel safe in the classroom. Having one of their classmates and friends curse or throw things makes them uncomfortable and affects their learning.
The last class of the day wasn't quite as dramatic but was also a disorganized mess. The classroom teacher was absent and the TA in that class has trouble managing the students on her own. I couldn't get through my lesson because of the time it took to get the students organized. They also needed to have a talk about respecting each other and behaving like good first graders. Not to mention that my computer also didn't hook up correctly to the SMART board.
So the day was a bit stressful and went longer than most days since we also had our last on campus seminar. But it ended on a good note with a letter.
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