First Class Meeting

 We had our first class meeting today. It went better than I thought. At first the kids were talkative and inattentive but once I explained that I would need to change their seats if they kept talking, they seemed more able to sit up and pay attention. When I asked them what worked for them, many of them said that they liked working with partners. When I asked what didn’t work for them, many of them said that they didn’t like the way that the cards couldn’t go back once they had been turned. I’m going to talk with them and try changing that rule, allow their cards to go back and forth between green and blue and see if that works. I guess that for me, I want them to be in charge of themselves and it feels like to me that if I keep changing them back and forth, then I’m managing them instead of them managing themselves. So, if they can stay on task and help each other without me managing them, then I’m fine with them switching back and forth. I’m even fine with getting rid of the cards altogether if they think they can do without them.

Today was also more mellow. I think I’m beginning to understand what I need to do. I had mentioned that on Tuesday, when they were talkative in line, I started to respond to them negatively, kind of scarily, like I was upset with them but then I realized that I can just as easily give them feedback on their behavior in a happy way. They don’t need me to be disappointed in them to get them to stop, they just need to be reminded that what they’re doing is not helping us right now. I’m also starting to examine my rules. For instance, the whole silence in the hallway thing is designed so that we don’t disrupt other classes. So, if they’re whispering but are still walking and not bothering anyone, it’s totally fine. I worry about being inconsistent, about confusing them by sometimes letting them whisper and other times making them be silent but at the same time, this feels more real and more fair. Sometimes it really is fine for them to whisper.

We did partner reading this morning. It’s always my favorite lesson the first week. The kids are engaged and always surprise me at how easily they can work together to find the answers to their predictions in the text.  This time, it was horrible. Their predictions were boring and the kids seemed completely uninterested in the story. Then they had an awful time just sharing a book with the person at their table. I was proud of myself for seeing this and changing up the lesson. Instead of sticking with the original lesson, I focused instead on just what it takes to partner read. I modeled it and gave them feedback on how they were doing. A few of them totally struggled at first so I had to step in to mediate but in the end, they were able to work it out. Because everyone finally mastered partner reading, I let them choose partners for their math games. Surprisingly, everyone played really well with their chosen partners- they didn’t goof around at all. It was so nice to see.

During PE, I held to my expectations that they could get into different groups: of two, of three, of four. It wasn’t easy but I stuck with them until they got it.  They had a really hard time just getting into groups of two because they kept searching for their friends instead of just going for who was nearest to them. I didn’t get mad at them when they didn’t get it, didn’t say I was frustrated, just gave them hints about how to do it. I think it was a good exercise for them. I think they felt like, as a class, they mastered something together and we ended up playing a game at the end.

I know that next week will be a struggle too but I’m going to try to be really patient with them and put myself in their shoes, really teach them what they need to know to be able to do the routines in our classroom. I’m going to go slowly and try to play more games with them where they mix up and get in to different groups with each other. They really need practice with that.