First Day Back...dun dun DUNNNN

A pretty decent day, actually.

I started by waking up at 5am. FIVE IN THE MORNING. GAH!
I got to school at 6.40 and got a lot done. The floors had been cleaned over break, and all the chairs/desks were off to the side. So I repositioned them, in groups of five this time. Then I taped the legs of the desks together so the kids won't be able to fidget them around. Then I taped on the nametags I made last night.

For each class, I reviewed the Magic Phrases (I'll post a pic of the poster later) and what to do when I put up two fingers (the peace sign): Immediately stop talking, Look at me, Put up your own hand. Simple. They already know it, I just want to enforce it explicitly. I also made a point of not talking over the chatter, so I'd just stop and wait. I do that sometimes, but not enough, because I get impatient and nervous that they'll just keep talking and I'll just stand there ALL DAY waiting for them to shut up, meaning I'd never teach and they'd all fail everything and I'd be fired.

Class A was a bit obnoxious for "reading" workshop, but once I started on the Proposal Salad lesson, they were engaged and well-behaved. They really got it. Briliant! My mentor, Mr A, was there that period and he told me it was the best he's ever seen from me, including what I did with discipline etc (though that still needs TONS and TONS of work). Hurrah. Some kids stayed in at lunch and they helped redo the reading notebook bags.

Class B was after lunch for only one period. They wanted to be good, but there was too much chatter, so I stopped the lesson before I was through. Despite that, I think they were interested and got it, too.

Class C was so-so. We had a good discussion about the tsunami disaster (one part of tonight's homework is to bring in up to/more than one dollar to donate to Red Cross). For the Proposal Salad, they seemed to enjoy it but were too chatty. Then I asked them to clean up and they got REALLY chatty and just loud. So I made them sit quietly for five minutes after the bell rang and the room was tidied. After that they did very well staying quiet, go figure.

I stayed for two hours after school, finishing the chart and gluing the salad together, and whatever else.

I feel good about today. I felt fairly calm and rather capable, too. I was proud of my lesson, and I am very happy that it went over well. I will be continuing the theme with the rest of our lessons, so it will definitely come in handy.

Blah blah, I'm sure there's more, but I want to go now. Bye.