Monday, 9/3/13

This is my one-year Blog-iversary! I began my classroom blog on year ago. I remember being so nervous about it: Was I doing it right? Would anyone read it? Would my writing be too rambling?? The answer to all of my questions was yes, yes and yes! The biggest stumbling block I came across was when we had a perfectly "normal" day, therefore there wasn't much to report. Fortunatley, that doesn't happen too often in here. We are anything but "normal"!! And I wouldn't want it any other way! So--what's new today? Well, it's a crazy beautiful day, so how could I not want to take the kids out for some recess. That thought had crossed my mind before school even started, then it started, and they had me at hello! Every single one of my "new" studnets came into this classroom first thing this morning with out a peep, NOT AS MUCH AS A PEEP of noise! They came in, took down their chairs, sat down and got right to work on their morning work. That, my friends, is what this gal calls heaven! I was soo proud and impressed! Okay, a skeptic might say, but it was the morning after a long weekend, perhaps they were tired. Yes, I'd say to that skeptic, that thought may have crossed my mind as well, but then, the morning kept ticking away and not once did I have to remind them to quiet down and/or get to work. At the risk of pulling a major jinx---I'm going on a limb and saying that this class is dreamy! Last week I'd begun an incentive with the class. Each team (there are 5) has a card hanging up and when I see a team doing really well, I give them a tally. The team at the end of the day with the most tallies, wins. By late morning, no team had a tally, and I began to sense that the no-tally thing might be confusing them because they'd been so perfect, so I stopped what I was doing for a little explanation. I equated it to a baseball pitcher's no-hitter, aka a perfect game. I explained that the tallies are actually used for two reasons: 1. to reward teams which are going well, but mainly to remind the other teams that they need to step it up. If there are no tallies given out, it's because the entire class is doing so incredibly well, that no one needs a remidner to step it up, therefore everyone deserves a reward!! And viola! That is why we spent the final 15 minutes of school outside breathing the clean, fresh air and watching kids running around being kids. Dreamy! Have a lovely night!