So the quarter came to an end today. Wow! What a struggle. I am working over time to make sure I have things planned out for the kids, and nothing, I mean nothing ever goes the way I want it to.
Let's begin with this: the students, the four boys who have since K-4 been the leaders and the driving force in the group, totally broke down because I asked them to give their classmates a chance to answer questions; I offer everyone roles and opportunities int eh classroom that fit their abilities and aspirations. Because everybody is now striving for attention, and trying to show who they are as people, the classroom is a hot bed of activity. But my four guys are acting like lost lambs. The one kid who was my constant guiding light has just fallen apart. He has barely made it through this quarter. Then I have a kid who spends his days rocking back and forth, or side to side, or both(I get absolutely dizzy sometimes watching him) is bound and determined that he will laugh at any and everyone if they get in trouble or cannot do something. Bu just let him be the one under fire and his first reaction is " Ms Fern you always making "front" of me!" Then there's the classroom "strange kid" who used to have melt downs every 10 minutes. Now he has mini melt downs, but man he has a lot of them. If he cannot sit int he front of the class and look me, I kid you not, right in the eye, he is not happy. I have another kid who wants to sit right by me so he can touch everything on my desk! Then you have the ones who wanna stand by you.....
So teaching tactics: I m using a loose sort of project based learning with the kids.Yeah  know, project based learning is apparently into working but in my class it is. Here's how I am doing it: Our last quarter project was we created our own solar system. It is so cool looking...I keep forgetting to take a picture of it but I will next week. I started th kids out by talking about the project. Then I had them spend a couple pf weeks creating planets, stars and constellations. Then we did not visit the project for a week or so....then I asked them to make more planets and stars. By about the third time I had them do stars and planets, they had the knack and turned in some fine work. I went tot he are store and bought some supplies so they had really cool markers, chalk and crayons to work with. My kids rocked!!!!! Now 3rd quarter project is a news letter. They have no idea what I mean, I even showed them some examples but they were so busy being out of control they haven't quite gotten the idea. As this was the same attitude they had with the solar system, I am very confident that this si going to work. I have been working with them on proper spoken English and punctuation. They understand it, they just forget to use it. Here is how I intend to drive it home- everybody has to do something on the newsletter, including writing, and with the publishing of the newsletter they will get grades for Reading, Writing and English. Their little eyes lit right up when they heard that. I did the same with the Solar system. They had to come up with creatures or beings that would live on the planets, plants and insects as well. For this they earned their Heath and Science grade.