For that Bug Under a Magnifying Glass Feel

Today was the day of my first observation.  My boss, the principal, sat in on my first kindergarten class today for roughly 20-25 minutes (and she'll be sitting in again tomorrow to observe one of the kids).  I'm just glad that I'm used to having people sitting in to watch me teach (due to my internship last spring), or I might have felt nervous about more than a just faint fear of the class' behavior.  Luckily, this first class was very well behaved, as they generally are.

Once again, the project was sponge printing.  This time, I was better prepared.  I found my rags (which had been in plain sight in my supply closet the whole time, of course) and so was able to conduct a much smoother clean up.  My Love & Logic strategy feels like it's starting to work.  I still need to finish the book, of course, and it will take some time before I truly begin to get the hang of it, but I ended on a good note today.

Now, I think I need to rewind and go back to the first class of the day.

I had 2nd, 1st, and kindergarten today, in that order.  2nd grade is doing a contour line project right now.  They have a piece of standard sized paper and write their names on it in big block or bubble letters.  Then, they color with colored pencils.  A wonderful, no mess project, but something I can still work on reinforcing classroom procedures on.  Plus, it was one worry taken away from all the rest, which is never a bad thing!

This class is one of my rowdier ones, but they actually did quite well.  There is a table that I am pretty sure needs to be broken up and spread out, so sometime before next Thursday, I need to break out my seating chart and switch people around.  There was a whole lot of "they're pushing the table into me!" and "he kicked me!" and squabbling going on.  I ended up moving one girl to work at a desk alone, and another boy moved to a single desk --his own decision-- to work.  But sadly, despite how well the class worked after this problem got figured out, I still ended up feeling like a complete heel.

Early in the class, I had given the little girl I moved a check mark because she wasn't paying attention.  Later she had been working so well that I told her she could put her name on the Star Board.  Unfortunately, my own criteria is that if the student gets a check at any time, they are no longer eligible for the Star Board.  (Incidentally, another boy got his name up and then got it taken down because he got a check mark right at the end of class.)  I later had to go back and take her name off the board because it should never have been there at all.  Of course she started silently weeping.  And what could I do?  I felt awful, but it is very clear that if they have a check they can't get a star.  I couldn't just let it go, could I?  Ooohh....  That was a big lesson for me, I guess.  I really need to be consistent, but I have GOT to pay attention to things like that so that I don't end up being inconsistent or just plain "mean".  If I had never told her to put her name up (because I remembered her check mark), she would have been just fine at the end of class.  Instead, I am now a horrible, horrible Indian giver.  Woe!

Fast forward back to kindergarten...

My last class was my third worst class.  (Why are they always the last class?  Why can't they be the first class, so that I can end on a good note?)  When I arrived, their teacher was very obviously at the end of her rope.  I figured, "Oh man, they are gonna be crazy!"  But they did really well today!  I was so excited, I had to brag to their teacher (who really needed to hear that) and to the principal and office ladies.  They were a lot more talkative than some classes, but they listened really well for the most part.  Everyone finished their project.  There was no big scary clean up chaos (except for the two inch dead roach I found floating in my water bucked after school--eeeeeeewww).  And miracle of miracles, they walked back to class quietly.  I only had to stop a couple times and ask those who were horsing around, "Will you settle down better here or at the end of the line?"  I think we all know what their answer to that was.  Joy!

Really, the only thing I have to deal with now is putting my drying rack together; so far, it's not working so well.  I think I need to put some WD-40 in the screw holes to deal with the rust, first of all.  Then I can deal with the pain of trying to hold the parts together while getting a screw in correctly.  Blah.  Fortunately, I'm done with painting for at least a week.  Tomorrow is the Monday/Friday group, and they are doing very basic collage right now.

.....until Monday, anyway.  Painting paper for the Hungry Caterpillar collage, I recall now.  So I do kind of need my drying rack.  Oh well.  That's what the weekend is for!