What I Loved About Last Week

The last week of school prior to any break is full of excited children. This week was no different.

1. Social Studies Crafts: I am so blessed to have inherited some amazing unit plans. There are so many little things that are planned just perfectly, that cross reference other subjects, and just work so well. I'm sure it took years to bring it to what it is today. It's one of the blessings of teamwork that our school espouses! 

One of the things we do in Gr. 3, rather than Christmas crafts, are crafts from the countries we study in Social Studies. We did sand art from Tunisia, weaving from Peru and henna from India. It is fun, relaxing, and a lovely way to spend the last day of school prior to the break. I got to do the henna. I love doing Indian henna. It is a beautiful form of art. This year my son even came in to volunteer with the the other parent volunteers. We had a great time.

2. My student who struggles with being organized is doing awesome with his daily check lists. We have now evolved to him doing the check list first, and then I go through it as a double check after. It is wonderful to see how confident and happy he is about being organized for home time.

3. Every year we do a Secret Santa activity. Everyone draws a name and for five days you leave a gift. They have a wonderful sheet we all fill out with favourite scents, treats, stores, etc. That really helps with the gift giving. It is fun, on the last day, as we reveal who we were a Secret Santa to, to hear all the funny stories of people being sneaky. Have I said before how much I enjoy the people I work with? They are all terrific.

4. Usually, by this time of year I am dragging myself to the last day. This year I felt a little more together. Could it be the November break that helped with that? I'm thinking so. Sorry to all you haters of the fall break. For me, I think it was a lifesaver!

.....now, on to winter break!!

The Power of a Thank You

It is the little things that make my heart swell.

Whe students fill their point sheet they get a list of rewards to choose from. One of the rewards is to sit in my desk for the afternoon. They seem to really like that! It is a good one for me too because it forces me to clean up my desk!

This was a note left by a boy in my class who got to sit in my desk. He is the first to have left a thank you note! So simple, yet so profound.

Checklist Manifesto

Ever had a student who is an organizational nightmare?

If your life is like mine, you probably have one or two kids every year that could make you pull your hair out. It is especially difficult when organizational inabilities start to affect learning.

I have a student this year who struggles this way. He forgets his homework at home after he dutifully finishes it. He forgets it at school now and then and then cannot do it. He forgets what his assignments are. He was frustrated, and I was too.

Finally, I had a brain wave. I read a book last summer called The Checklist Manifesto. I decided to implement some of the principles from that book. I had him make a list of things that he needs to have in his binder each day. He put more things on the list than I would have, but I figured it was important that it be HIS list. I also added a few things to help him keep his desk organized: put away all dull pencils, get two sharp pencils for tomorrow, and get rid of all loose papers in his desk. I typed up the list and coped them ten times over. At the end of each day we tape the list in his agenda and go through it together. The first day it took quite a lot of time. He gets faster at it each day. Hopefully, in time, he will look after the list independently. For now, we go over the list in great detail together, every day.

                                         

The most interesting thing, to me, was to see how excited he was about it the first day. He kept saying to me that he felt so great, so confident! He said he was so happy that he knew that when he went home no one was going to get mad at him. He knew he had everything he needed.

It made me wonder how often he has left school with a sense of dread, wondering and even worrying whether or not he was on track, or if he was going to get in trouble again. It felt really great to find such a simple tool to give him such confidence.

I'm truly blessed to work amongst some amazing people. We had a staff Christmas party this weekend. It is wonderful to work with people who you truly enjoy visiting with and having good laughs with.

I've worked at a number of different places in my life. It's a wonderful thing when you work somewhere where there's magic. When I first started scheduling I worked for a young start up company. They were doing revolutionary things in the mystery shopping world through the internet. It was exciting, the learning curve was steep, and everyone was excited about where we were going.

Then, some big company came along and wanted to buy us up. The leaders of our company succumbed to the big $$ being offered. Who could blame them. We hoped nothing would change. It did. The magic was soon gone.

The school I now work at has magic. Teachers are positive. They enjoy working there and are eager learners and leaders. Parents are perhaps the school's biggest fans. The administration allows for and encourages individual leadership. There's room to grow and learn and try new things. It's a wonderful place to work.

Do you enjoy the people you work with?

Things I Loved About This Week

Seems like a great weekly reflection tool, and a great addition to my blog! Thanks for the idea Ruth Ayres!

This was really a fun week. We spent Monday and Tuesday at the ski hill. It was a relaxing couple of days, full of visiting and a little bit of (i.e. not quite enough!) marking.

It is really interesting to see my students in a different environment as well. They had a great time and were totally exhausted by the end! There is nothing better than a worn out kid, if you ask me. It means it was a day well spent!

On Thursday we got to go to the high school and watch their production of The Little Mermaid. The play was terrific. I sat by a little girl who knew every song and sang right along with them. She swooned over the Prince and cowered from Ursula. It was so fun! 

Somehow, before the play started, I ended up on the stage, singing. 

How do I get myself in these messes?!

One of my favourite things about Thursday was the bus ride. I told my kids one of the best things about bus rides is the reading time. We decided to all pick a Babymouse book to read. Some kids even finished a whole Babymouse, then traded and read another. It warmed my teacher heart!!

It's a Jungle Out There

I decided it is time to start a blog where I can write about my teaching life.

It's a jungle out there.

I hope to share funny things that happen, my own learning, and a few other interesting ideas along the way.

Stay tuned!