Today was: [a little chaotic, but overall-] SMASHING [considering...]

All things considered, today went quite well and I'm pretty pleased with myself. I did it. Sure, I've handled classes all day before [back in Indiana - substitute teaching and student teaching], but this time it means a lot more to me.

One thing that I did today because Miles did it yesterday and I thought that it was the cutest thing was this "game" called "No Zoo For You". So, we're in the midst of learning about the /s/ sound [with good ol' Sammy the Seal], right? Well, a kid is given two pictures, one that has an item on it that starts with /s/ ["sun"], and one that doesn't start with /s/ ["map"]. It is explained to the kids that you are opening an /S/ Zoo and you only want items in the zoo that start with an /s/ sound. Their job is to pick up the picture that doesn't start with the /s/ sound, look at it, and yell out, "NO ZOO FOR YOU!" I'm telling you, it's adorable - the kids just get SO into it, and each kids yells it out in their own adorable way. The kids didn't seem to get as big a kick out of it today as they did yesterday... but I did.

Ironically, the part of the day that I was most worried about ended up going the best. I wasn't feeling so confident about the 10-10:30am slot when we were going to sit on the rug in a circle and have a literature discussion on the 4 books we read recently [I Need a Lunchbox, I Went Walking, My Red Boat, and What's My Favorite Color?] - plus, it was during this timeslot that my supervisor would be visiting. In the morning, before school, I looked again at the signup sheet, saw that no one signed up to have our supervisor visit in the afternoon, and considered changing times. Luckily, I didn't switch. The morning went really well, and the afternoon felt quite chaotic. It was probably just me, because when the sub asked how I thought the day went and I mentioned that the second half of the day seemed out of control, she said, "OH, it could've been A LOT worse. That was not chaos." I guess it just FEELS like chaos when the noise level in the room is higher than your used to and you've got 4 or 5 kids yelling "ERIC!" all at the same time.

The most chaotic time of the day was definitely Math time. First, we went over to the calendar and the girl in the wheelchair got to move the arrow from "Monday" to "Tuesday", etc. The whole time, one of the students was tapping on my foot, one was eating paper, one was looking at some folded up piece of paper, a bunch of kids were gabbing quietly, one girl in front kept fidgeting all over the place, the girl with autism [who, thankfully, had no MAJOR freakouts] was rolling onto her back and kicking her feet into the air, kids were calling out my name, etc. It was just one of those Calgon Take Me Away moments where EVERY LITTLE THING was adding up to something HUGE. I pride myself on my ability to remain calm, but I swear I was inches away from puffs of smoke coming out of my ears. Next was Math Center time. Most of the groups worked quietly, but the Magnet Center was OUT OF CONTROL. LOUD TALKING, FIGHTING, GRABBING, THROWING THINGS, PLAYING INSTEAD OF WORKING - just CRAZY. After a little while, I walked over and said, "Ok, we're done here. You guys don't seem to be able to work together with the magnets so none of you are going to work with them." I took all of the magnet stuff away and plopped down a bag of rocks on the table. "You guys can sort rocks and I hope that you COOPERATE this time." When I came back to the table a few minutes later, they were sorting rocks as a group instead of individually. That made me feel warm inside.

I WAY over-planned for today. No, I didn't over-PREPARE, there was just way too much that I wanted to do. Like, I SO ran out of time for a lot of things. In Science, the kids were supposed to draw their own eyes [after looking into little mirrors] and then the eyes of a partner. Didn't happen. Well, they had JUST enough time to draw their eyes, but that was it. There were a bunch of phonics-y/language arts things that I had planned that we SO didn't have time for. After the literature circle, we were supposed to read another book, brainstorm a list of sentences about the "Eating a Rainbow" activity we did yesterday [the kids got to eat different colored fruit], and then go to their seats to write/draw about that activity OR the book that we just read - and the drawing/writing was going to be posted on the Best Work wall. Well, I wanted to be sure that the kids got to to write, so I didn't read the one book until AFTER Writing time. Then, I only brainstormed a couple of sentences with them about eating the fruit, and I felt so rushed that my handwriting [on the dry erase board] was ATTROCIOUS - like, a REALLY bad model for the kids to go off of. Ugh.

So, my supervisor was there for the literature discussion circle, which, as I said, was one of the most successful parts of the day. I reintroduced the 4 books, got the students to recall plot details and the sequence of events from each text [the kids did a GREAT job here], and then had them think of similarities and differences amongst the books. The supervisor noted that I do a good job of "shifting", or, knowing when and how to rephrase questions when I'm met with blank stares. She also noted that I should "keep my sense of humor and continue to pick up on what the children are telling you." In my book, those are two of the most important things that I can bring to the table as a teacher.

I'm exhausted, feeling a lot like I did after the first couple of weeks of school. The school day isn't all that long, but, MAN does it FEEL really long. It was a fun, full day and I'm looking forward to Miles being back to school tomorrow. I'm totally up for taking the class the whole day anytime, but I need a couple of days to recoup before I do it again any time soon.

Tomorrow, Sammy the Seal gets a friend: Mimi the Mouse!! [Cringe.]