I have never needed caffeine to keep me awake at nights, my thoughts do that for me instead. They swirl around in my head, racing from one track to another, picking up speed, slowing down and jumping tracks. Perhaps, instead of a train, my thoughts could be compared to a horse. I have trained my thoughts to trot, gallop, walk and stop but the thoughts will still test me and have a mind of their own. They jump over the obstacles, wander down dark trails strewn with twigs and leaves and sometimes they head back to a place I've tried taking them away from. Today I have been thinking on my class and making up name labels that I will place where I want them to sit. As I think about what clip art picture to attach to their name, I reread some of the notes I have on individual students and think back to the day I was introduced to my class, trying to figure out what would be appropriate. One boy had a 'target' picture because he always tries hard, a sweet girl who can be a daydreamer, I gave a picture of flowers and butterflies and to a boy who always finds something to do and is active, I attached a picture of a busy bee. As I thought about how to group them, I started off alphabetically and then moved them around according to who I felt might work well together and tried to avoid students who might clash.
I have been checking over teacher resources and thinking about how I want to set up my class and even bought some prizes for the box, which will be a reward box. I will need to figure out how I will set up prizes, points, awards, groups, individuals and so on. Teaching is something I know and it's good to fall back into the flow of what comes to me as naturally as breathing. Looking over my class list, my notes on the students and my observations and recollections of that orientation day, it will have it's challenging moments. I think the first challenge will be to have the class working as a group that cares about each other and will support each other in the learning and growing of each individual. Having a 'family' class enables the individuals to feel secure and makes the learning environment more healthy and educational.
It's good to remember what it's like to have my own class. I visited some teacher resource webpages, have calculated and recalculated my expenses until my first pay day and I'm trying to see what I can afford to buy for my classroom and teacher aids, imminently. I will also visit 2nd hand stores and maybe furniture stores to chat and see what might be thrown my way if I smile and say the right thing. Paper, carpet squares, magazine rack, objects that can be used for counting.... I bought a smiley, blue ball the other day which might be used for 'silent ball' or perhaps used when we are talking and listening so that only the person who holds the ball can speak. I have to rebuild all my resources and books/library up again as when I went to the States from Australia, I gave away and/or sold almost everything. So, just like in the other areas of my life, I am starting from scratch again.
Oh, the joys of having my own class to teach and having a grade 3/4 class is best of all!
1 comment:
I think the lack of 'family' was one of the biggest problems with my class this year. They fought constantly with each other. Had no care for each other or their possessions. If they wanted something someone else had they just took it and used it. If something went missing (like a pencil dropped on the floor) the immediate presumption was that someone had taken it.
I decided to have a rewards chart where they got a mark everytime I caught them being good. At the end of the week how many marks they had decided what they got from the prize box. There were stickers, pencils, plastic animals, pens, rubbers, drawing tracers, etc. This worked really well the first week until it came to prize distribution. Between a third and a half of the class turned up their noses at the prizes because they weren't good enough for them. And so it deteriorated from there.
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