I seem to collect blogs like a cake crumb collects ants. All of them are important to me, but having several means that some are left unattended. Since there is so much that is new for me this year, it seemed like a good time to update this one.
Your kids are an endless delight to me. I love to watch how they interact with each other and most of all, how they grow in their thinking. Believe it or not, my first time in a classroom as a paid educator was in 1979 as a teacher's assistant in college. I shared that little known fact with the 6th graders, and I watched one face as her brain did the math, and then the delightful change on her face when she figured out that I was old! That look on her face was worth telling that little secret.
In the few, cough, years that I have been teaching, I learned a few tricks. Today I put one of my favorite ones into use during grammar. The sixth graders have to memorize the 52 prepositions in the book. Memorizing is rarely fun. I give them a unscramble worksheet to complete, but tell them that, after working on it for about 15 minutes, I will give them the chance to do whatever it takes to ensure that the whole class earns 100% on the paper, and a promise of a reward serves as a carrot. Then I sit back and watch the fun.
Though this exercise helps them memorize their prepositions, it really is a cleverly designed plot for me to learn more about your kids. I like working this way-- creative, controlled, chaos, I call it. I step back and watch who sits by themselves, who is helpful, who will reach out to the shy one and quietly sit next to them to work and who steps up to organize the class to ensure the objective is reached. Though they think it is just a fun way to finish a boring worksheet, I learn more about your children that way than I would in weeks of the teacher in the front style of teaching. I can see already, that this 6th grade class is filled with personality, but also lovely people in their own right.
It isn't just the sixth, grade, though. I was talking to Ms. McGillivray today and we agreed that we have a very nice mix of kids this year. Of course, she and I always seem to say that, but this year's group is delightful in itself. I saw the 8th grade boys at lunch sitting with some 6th grade boys. The 6th grade girls seem to move as a cohesive group from table to table. There isn't room at one table for all of them, so, like an amoeba on a microscope slide, they separate into two tables, but still seem to be one. The 7th graders have grown more confident over the summer, and the 8th graders are almost taller than me. They have taken on an 8th grade maturity over the summer and I already miss them, because I know they will be ready to move on before it seems like we are ready to let them go.
