Dance like a chicken!

So today I was humbled. More like totally embarrassed myself. Thank GOODNESS my class is 2nd grade and they didn't know any better (or really care!) I taught my first created lesson- meaning a lesson that I put together and planned. The only person in the room that learned anything (well, hopefully!) was me. My lesson was a math lesson and it was supposed to be teaching them to write number sentences using a given picture or drawing. I think because I didn't learn math this way that my brain revolted at the last minute- at least that is what I'm going to claim. I had a pretty good lesson prepared and set up but when it came time to actually teach it, I dropped it like a hot potato and headed in a direction I hadn't planned. I did get myself back on track, but about 10 minutes into it I realized that I hadn't followed through with my original message and that meant that my conclusion and complete message throughout was not going to make sense. So I improvised. And improvised. And before I knew it- I had lost them. I knew I had lost them but I tried to recover-- you can imagine how unsuccessful THAT was! And so... we got out of our seats (well- the students got out of their seats- I was already standing) and danced around the room like chickens. Isn't there some saying that goes something like, "when all else fails, dance like a chicken"?? Isn't there? Well? Sigh- ok. I know. But given the blessing that they are so young, they were forgiving and happy to have gotten up to dance. When RM asked them to affirm me (uh- THAT was really asking something of them!) one of the girls said she liked that I let them dance like chicken. Awesome! :) 

My lesson thankfully was at the end of the day right before we went to specials (and dismiss immediately after specials) so I was able to sit alone in the room for a few minutes and regain my composure. I did learn some serious lessons (and how to dance like a chicken in public) and will tweak my communications tomorrow when I try this again. 

Other than that, my day went great! We worked more on Daily Five techniques, introducing I-PICK and building stamina with the kids. It seems our class is stronger reading silent independently than they are as a class keeping quiet in their seats.

We also gave them their book boxes and had them stock them. RM had problems finding enough boxes to have plastic book boxes (several visits to multiple Target stores) so we had everyone bring in an empty cereal box and one of the parents cut them so they were shaped like magazine boxes. 

These aren't as sturdy as the plastic boxes but they do indeed work well and they were VERY cheap. RM mentioned getting some contact paper to decorate them. This would also help strengthen and reinforce them so we are going to look at the dollar store this weekend and see what kinds of options we have. I would like them to be cute but at the same time sturdy. 

Behavior-wise we had two friends move their sticks today. We had to move one student away from his group because we were having problems with him distracting his peers. We moved him close to where I sit hoping that this would help him keep focused. It did work but the student that he is closest to was having an "off" day and they just seemed to feed off of each other this morning and so they changed their colors. The afternoon was much better though and we had no problems with either of them. Hopefully tomorrow we will get a better feel for how this new seating arrangement will work out. Tomorrow is Friday-- and JEANS day. Yay! Happy to wear jeans and sneakers! I'll be attempting to save my sunken lesson as well tomorrow so I'm sure I will have more to share then. 

Krystal