As far as weeks go, this past week was one of the more difficult school weeks I've had thus far. First, our air conditioner went out, then my personal AND school computers crashed. We were a HOT, technology starved mess. It made me realize just how much I depended on my computer and Smart board! I ended up getting to the point where I needed to tape signs to my "interactive" board. Thankfully the librarian let us take over the library one day, and some coworkers lent me fans, so not all was lost. I'm very grateful to have my personal computer fixed and a loaner school computer ready for use next week! As for the air conditioner...I don't expect any changes soon.
As far as teaching goes, I actually did have some fun with kids this week. We are reading the book Holes, and I've been trying to find ways to make it come alive in our classroom. Last year I mainly posted signs relating to the book; this year I stepped it up a bit. I made a tent out of our doorway to give them the feeling of entering Camp Green Lake, and I brought in some water for the kids to roll play with. In the book, kids dig holes all day in the desert. Every so often, a camp leader brings the water truck around and fills their canteens. I purchased cheap cups and a water dispenser from the camping section at Walmart, filled it with water, and assigned one student to be the person in charge. It was really funny to see how the kids got excited about getting a tiny bit of tap water in their cups. You would have thought it was soda. Hey, whatever works! The real kicker is that I asked the student in charge to assume the personality of the leader currently giving out water in the book. Our first character was "Mr. Sir," a temperamental guy who doesn't have much compassion... "You aren't in Girl Scouts anymore!" I allowed to student in charge to be as stubborn and rude as they wanted.....though none of them did. I had to step in and be bossy for them. :)
On a side note, the longer I teach, the more tricks I steal from other teachers. My favorite new trick is used to combat exhausting kids who ask a question every 2 minutes. After the first few questions, let them know that all of your "Question answering energy" has been used up. It will take a little while to build that back up. Son of a gun...it works! They will glare...but glares are better than exhausting, rapid fire questions. I've even made it more specific...."Ah, man! My Jason question answering energy is ALL used up. Darn!"
Teaching is weird.
-Mrs. Combs
