Welcome to week 4! I have officially been at the Mix for a month now. School has been in session for a while now, and students are finally getting settled into the routine. That also means that they are more willing to push boundaries. This week has definitely been a challenge, but it was still a good week.
The project is simple. In preparation for a future project that includes sewing, we taught the students how to sew a running stitch with plastic needles and yarn. We taught them how to thread the needle, knot the yarn at one end, sew the stich, and fasten off the yarn, and start a new line of stitches. There was some difficulty because they were practicing on paper, but for the most part, the students did a good job on the sewing. Behavior management was a different story this week.
Monday was the hardest day in terms of classroom management. The students had lots of
energy and little to no homework, which meant they all wanted to play around and have my attention. Alexis was out of the room for the first ten minutes, which made them more antsy, asking where she was and if I was teaching alone. At one point, two students started yelling at each other, calling names and being downright nasty towards each other. Of course I separated them and tried to talk with them about what happened, but they didn't want to talk about it. They sat quietly for about a minute before one gave the other an unpleasant look and they started arguing again, this time across the classroom. Since I am not allowed to leave the students alone in the classroom or the hall, I couldn't take them downstairs or let them in two different areas to calm down either. I tried letting one sit in a chair just outside the classroom where I could monitor them while also keeping an eye on the kids still in the room, but the other student went out there and they were chasing each other and arguing in the hall, too. That is when Alexis came back, and she helped me corral the students back into the room and got them to quiet down by removing half the points from the class score for the day and saying she would start calling parents if they didn't calm down. Alexis informed me that they have been behaving this way for all the teachers since some time last week. We brought it up to other staff, who said they would help figure something out. The second group was a little better. Neither got very far into the activity. The whole day, only one student finished.
Wednesday went more smoothly. The students kept ripping the paper, which frustrated them. Understandably, a few of them finished the two lines that we required them to and asked for coloring pages. A few finished and we gave them candy for their persistence. I led the demonstration and gave a good portion of the individual attention on this day.
Thursday was the oldest students. They were excited about the project, they loved the coloring sheets, listened well, and finished the sewing practice. They even helped clean up the classroom after, which was great! It was a fun day. Since they were so well behaved, I drew a dragon on the board and let them hold a vote on what to name it. The dragon's name is Maverick.
Next week, we are doing leaf garlands, since it is the first week in October. I will be working on research and planning for the week of the 10th, when I will be teaching them about Artist Trading Cards. I hope to also talk to the other teachers in our staff meeting on Monday about some strategies for classroom management with the younger students, since we are all struggling with them. This may include introducing movement into lessons, since the students already sit through class at school all day. I suspect that giving them a positive outlet for all that energy may help with the behavioral struggles we are seeing.
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