I just want to run through my third week before I get too behind in these postings. Last week was pretty swell, but the biggest thing of note was a situation on Friday. My mentor teacher had a 45 minute meeting in the morning, leaving me alone to lead the kids, including morning meeting. This was quite scary and yet exciting! All in all, it did go well. There were some issues along the way though, including three boys who simply refused to follow my direction during a transition. We will call them Kinley, Ronald, and Mitch.
Ronald in particular refused to clean up and got his two friends to fool around as well. Ronald danced around with some building gears between his legs, pretending it was his penis. So that was fun. I felt comfortable telling him to go to his desk. I think I feel more comfortable disciplining when my teacher is out than when she's watching me. Not that she would mind. She would reinforce it, but there's just a greater sense of freedom when I'm on my own. Aside from the penis boy (We will call him Ronald, but not sure why), the rest of the morning went rather smoothly. I led the meeting, got children to come up and highlight sight words they recognized in the message, and got them through a second transition and line up! Oh, and I took attendance! When my mentor teacher came back, she pulled out the three rowdy boys to sit them down and tell them how disappointed she was. Kinley even started crying. Ronald got the privilege of being the line leader taken away that day (This is a coveted job, as you get to take home the class stuffed animal when you get chosen as the line leader...not to mention, who doesn't remember wanting to be the first person in line?) My teacher is very good about following through with consequences and making them make sense. If you can't handle a responsibility/privilege, you WILL get it taken away.
Anyway, all three children had to look at me and tell me they were sorry after answering the teacher's question, "Did you make Miss Meghann's job easier or harder?" It's amazing how remorseful they become when they let the teacher down. I hope I will soon have that power over them too, but we will see.
In other news, a child made a snowman this week that was supposed to be me:
And for one of my read alouds, I read "Tabitha's Terrifically Tough Tooth" by Charlotte Middleton. We had two kids who had some terrifically tough, but loose teeth this week. It was relevant and a cute funny book.
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