Week One

This was my first week as a sixth grade teacher. It was fun, exciting, and packed full! I felt so comfortable being in the classroom and the students are so accepting of me. I'm finding my strength in working with younger kids and being able to correct them and get them back on task. It's amazing how much my attitude changed this week. I love coming to school.

Day One: I learned the call and responses for each class and started using them toward the end of the week.

Advisory: "Spongebob" "Squarepants" 

1st Period: "Patrick" "Star"

3rd Period: "It's the Mickey Mouse" "Club House"

6th Period: "Gangnam" "Style" 

7th Period: "We are never ever ever" "Getting Back Together"

Day Two: I gave out some "Chili Cash" which are green squares that students get when they are on task and prepared. They write their name on it and then turn it into the bucket. At the end of the month a few squares are pulled out and those kids get privileges, like listening to their I-pod. The students are reading the novel, Cloaked, and once they are finished they can move on to the book, The Uglies. When they finish either book they get a prize. For Cloaked the first 25 get a bad of Lucky Charms. For The Uglies the first 25 get a tattoo sticker. For both books the students get a star sticky on the wall with their name on it. It is amazing to see how this motivates the kids to read the books.

Day Three: We participated in community service. The sixth graders and team teachers walked to the bus barn and cleaned buses. I was with eleven kids and we all had to talk in an accent the whole time. The students did a wonderful job cleaning and had a great time speaking in accents. They laughed almost the whole time. It was a great experience to have and be able to give back on my birthday. Also today I helped in the 7th grade English class while their teacher got furniture delivered to her house. She was probably gone for only 30 minutes, but wow it seemed like it flew by. I was helping students in their research of African animals and was making sure they stayed on track. Woo I was ready for lunch after that! :)

Day Four: Today the sixth grade class went skiing. My mentor and I stayed behind with the three students who couldn't go skiing. Today my mentor had to help her husband with a few things and so for about two hours throughout the day I was in charge of the kids. Awesome!  It was a day for planning and trying to figure out how to implement my online classes into the sixth grade. I think we have a good plan and here are my goals for this cycle:

Watch Molly teach 1st period and the take over 3rd, 6th, and 7th periods starting on January 28th.

Make a time management plan for online classes, grading, and teaching by January 28th.

Attend and participate in the GMS English Team day on January 29th.

At the end of the day I spent over an hour with Rev. Rivenbark. It was sweetest conversation ever. Sweet because it was amazing that I got to spend so much time with her and that she would help me. Sweet because I learned valuable information on how to be a better teacher. Here are a few highlights (really the whole conversation was highlight after highlight): A tip to not get frustrated; find the keys that unlock the doors to their minds, their little hearts. Be willing to fail and succeed and everything in-between. I also talked to her about my desire to go Way Disciple. She got a huge smile on her face and said, "You know, the Camp has the Way Disciple pamphlet, you should get one and put it on your dresser." I told her about why I wanted to go and she told me some valuable tips that made me realize how much Way Disciple would help my life and help me be a better teacher. Way Disciple builds spiritual character and quality of life. The ministry is about teaching. Those are just a few of the things she shared with me, if I were to write them all you would be reading for a while. haha. Overall, the conversation made me realize that I made the best decision in my life switching to the 6th grade because of the environment of the classroom and school. And the conversation left me with many thoughts on what I should do after May 31st. 

And that was my first week with the sixth graders. This weekend I spent a lot of time grading their writing assessments and making my management plan timeline. I also submitted two online assignments. And I celebrated my birthday all week/weekend. And I worked out 6 days this week! Feeling really happy about life!