Greetings to You

A couple of years ago I read an article that said hundreds of kids pass through their middle and high schools every day without ever hearing their name. It was meant to point out a travesty, and I took it to heart. Since then, I stand outside my classroom door every morning and greet every student who passes by, most of them by name, since as a sixth grade teacher I know roughly a third of the school.

To be honest, it's a good brain exercise for me, especially this year, when I needed to learn 145 names as quickly as possible. Fortunately, with so many kids, I have some help. This year a few students have elected to join me. They stand right beside me, and together we greet everyone who walks down the hall with a great big "good morning!" If I don't know someone and they do, they introduce us, and the reverse is true as well.

Hopefully? There are a lot fewer kids at our school who pass a day without someone saying their name.

Dependent Learner

"What's dialogue?" asked one of the 28 kids in my class after 3 mini-lessons on dialogue.

"What's dialogue?" I asked him as I sat down in the next chair.

"People talking!" his writing partner whispered.

"People talking?" he answered.

"Right!" I told him. "Now where can you add dialogue to your personal narrative?"

"What's a personal narrative?" he responded.

Finally Fall

pumpkins
date nut muffins
apple sauce
flannel
fleece
boots
kettle corn
corn maze
and
soup for dinner

Unicorn Tears

On a Target run for essentials, we found that we could not resist the Halloween displays. So much candy! So many home and yard decorations! So many costumes!

They even had a couple of giant heads like those that mascots and theme park characters wear, one of a cow, and one of a unicorn. True confession: I've always wanted to wear one of those; in fact, I harbor secret hopes of one day being our school yellow jacket mascot at a basketball game.

In that spirit, I immediately put on the unicorn head. "Heidi! Take my picture!" I commanded.

"What? I can't hear you in there!" she answered.

"MY PICTURE!" I repeated, and she willingly obliged.

Behind me, a mom rolled her toddler our way. "Turn around!" Heidi urged me.

I did, and the poor child immediately burst into tears. His mother, Heidi, and I laughed in surprise.

"I'll take it off!" I said, and as I did, his eyes grew even wider, and he screamed in terror. His wailing grew fainter as his mom pushed him quickly around the corner and away to another section of the store. I put the unicorn head back on the shelf.

A little while later, we ran into them again in the cleaning supplies. My own eyes widened a bit, and I laughed nervously. "Oh! He's fine now!" his mom assured us, but he gave me the stink eye as they rolled past.

Why Thank You

"Awesome, Tracey, you're the greatest!" said the cable help operator.

Such praise I did not expect, especially since all I did was agree to stay on the line while he pinged my cable card so that I could receive my premium channels on the refurbished TIVO box that arrived yesterday to replace our faulty DVR.

But I kind of liked it, anyway.

That Was Easy

V looked grumpy when he walked in this morning. He announced that he did not have his notebook, and then dragged his feet on his way over to pick up his copy of the book we're reading together, then he lay his head on the table and tried to read along sideways. A little while later, he was playing a game on his iPad under the table. After I instructed him to put the device on my desk, he sighed and tossed his book across the table and onto the floor. After class, I asked him to come back at lunch so we could talk.

My classroom was a little hectic at the beginning of lunch: kids were shooting baskets at the "Lollipop Line", others were borrowing books, plugging in iPads, dropping off binders. V sat moodily waiting for the room to clear. "How long do I have to stay here?" he asked.

"That depends," I shrugged. "Why did I ask you to come?"

He sat up straight. "I was unprepared, off-task, and disrespectful," he answered, nailing it.

"Right!" I replied with a little laugh. "How come?"

"I'd rather not say," he demurred. "Sometimes I just get like that. But, I'll do my best to not take it out on you."

"Thanks!" I said, "And if you ever feel like talking to someone, or you need a break, just ask."

"I will," he promised as he headed out the door to lunch.

Thoughts on a Short Day

We had early release today, which meant 24 minute classes, lunch at 10 AM, and clearing the halls of kids by 11:54. Amazingly, the day went quite well, the kids were attentive and focused, and I found that I got a lot of instruction into a little bit of time.

Maybe it has to do with screen time and the fast pace of children's entertainment, but whatever the cause, kids today definitely seem to have much shorter attention spans than ever before, so who knows? They may actually thrive on a condensed day.

"I wish every day was like this!" one of my students said as he packed up his things and rushed to his next class. "I would learn a lot more-- there's no time for me to get bored!"

The trend in education is longer class periods with fewer transitions, but maybe we're thinking about it backwards.