A Word About Discipline

Hi friends =] So I've been teaching all day since last Monday and oh my goodness, it is exhausting. I feel like I'm juggling five chainsaws all day long. I have ACTUALLY FORGOTTEN TO EAT. If you know me, you know that is very unusual. I usually plan my day around when I get to eat- true story.

One of the biggest things I've noticed is about discipline and behavior management. It's pretty easy to keep 22 kids in line for an hour long lesson every once in awhile, but having them all day is a whole 'nother story! The "Spring Fever" they've got doesn't help matters, either.

A couple of my boys were having trouble controlling themselves and were unfocused and giggly during lessons. I love these kids and KNOW they want to behave for me, they just need help refocusing. So I talked with the student having the most difficulty and since he and I bonded very quickly over Gator football, I came up with a little idea. Since Tim Tebow is such a fantastic leader and makes constant good choices, we called good leadership or good focus moments "Tebow Moments". Whenever I catch this student doing a great job, I just walk by and softly say "Tebow Moment". He absolutely loves it!

Today, he had a really great day and was so so proud of his "Tebow Day". I'm just glad that he's using his leadership abilities for good! Thanks for the inspiration, Tim ;)

Patriot's Day

As all of you know, today is September 11th. For all of us "adults" (I use the term loosely) that date will never have the same meaning as it did before 2001, but for the 7 and 8 year olds in my class, it's just another day. They were still years from being born on that tragic day and they don't have "I remember where I was..." stories to tell. The issue for today was: How do we address the importance of the day without scaring the children or oversharing beyond what parents find appropriate. What was even more difficult was the fact that none of the other second grade teachers were doing anything special for the day and my mentor teacher was out of town to greet her son-in-law returning from Afghanistan! So after some searching, I found a nice idea that was simple, but to the point. We made cards for police officers and firefighters thanking them for their service!

The kids came in with this prompt on the board:
     Good Morning! Today is September 11th, Patriot's Day. Please make a card for a police officer or a firefighter thanking them for keeping us safe.

They could choose a piece of red, white, or blue construction paper and use their crayons. I also had a list of words on the board for spelling reasons and to give kids an idea of what to write:

• Thank you
• Brave
• Protecting
• People
• Courage
• Hero

Some of the cards were really sweet! Here's one to a police officer:

"America need's you officer's"

Notice she drew ALL 50 STARS on that American flag. Dedication right there.

"thank you for all the things you do to protect us"

You can tell she worked hard on getting it just right! Here's one for a firefighter:

"Thank you" with a crown? and some stars

"Dear firerfiter's. You are the best. Do you now about the fire by the animel shelter?" And then a place for an answer, of course. I had to warn her that she may not get an answer...

So now I have the issue of how to give these heartwarming cards to police officers and firefighters... I may give the police ones to my dad (a police officer in Jacksonville) to give to rookies, and then swing by a fire station to drop off the firefighter ones. Any better ideas??

So that's how we remembered the victims of 9/11: celebrating the heros of our nation. I wish I had more time to plan a lesson, because I'm thinking of so much more stuff I could have done. But that's a start! How did your school remember today?