Wednesday April 13th

Where to start...

Homework
Managed to get a couple more of the expected assignments in but... same old
Novel approx 8 to hand in Ch 1-5
Math approx 5 still to hand in the lines & angles booklet

General Day
I won't go in to too much detail but today we had a very powerful and productive class meeting due to some personal observations, phone calls from parents and requests from students about social interaction and name calling. There were a lot of hurt feelings and some pent up emotion which spilled out in discussion and sharing.
The students were very forthright and brave in their additions to the class discussion and anyone who wished not to participate verbally was able to listen and observe.
I moved the desks and we sat in a circle. The intention was to bring us back together as a group of classmates, to explain that these feelings are normal (hormonal) but some of the reactions and counter-reactions are not okay (name-calling and physical lashing out) and finally to have them think about who they are and what role they are playing in the class.
We had a 'funeral' for put downs- our principal Mrs. Paxton attended and brought the shredder from the office and we shredded all the negative things that we had said, or heard or heard said to someone else- it was a personal choice to share or not what was written before it was shredded- those who shared were very brave and were thanked for their courage.
Mrs. P. helped iron out some more specific issues with small groups after recess.
After that, we rewrote our Class Charter adding a line about equality and rededicated to what we agreed to as a class in September.  Everyone will sign tomorrow after I have had a chance to add our new sentence to it (I can share it on the Blog tomorrow).

For the rest of the morning, we played some cooperative games in class to bring us together - I think they enjoyed it but I have to send apologies to Mrs. M. (our secretary) and Mrs P. who were directly below us because we were rather noisy and boisterous (Sorry!).

I think many of the issues were aired and dealt with and hopefully, with this attempt to communicate and set things straight, we can sail happily through the third term and the last three months of the school year together.
I am so grateful that I had the ability to use a morning of class time to address the personal responsibility issues head on with support from parents and my principal. I am confident it will help and that my students are feeling like they have been supported. Thanks everyone. It takes a village...

We will return to our regular morning instruction schedule on Thursday.

DEAR time was recommended for use for those not yet up to date with novel work. I also spent the time filling in some missing instruction for students who had missed math on Monday! The rest used the time to read independently.

Socials: Map of Europe- after looking at ancient Greece yesterday- it is good idea to give it some context in the modern day world. The Greeks believed that Delphi was the centre of the world which is really interesting when you look at the whole of  Europe. The students learned about peninsulas, that Europe is 10 million km squared and that much of southern Europe is comprised of small islands.

It took a whole hour to do the map activity ! I was a bit disappointed at the time it took but it has been that kind of day so I'll just try to get over it. Some days I don't get as much in as I planned to include but then I guess some days are like that. What do the students get from an activity that is not properly completed especially when a good two thirds of students would not take it home and complete it themselves?

Phys. Ed. Fitness - we did some warm up activities run by the students (sit ups, jumping jacks, push ups, ankle rotations and hamstring stretches)- needed to address form of exercise as some were not really engaging their core (i.e. using their arms to propel themselves forward in sit ups). We split into 6 teams of four (some sat out due to leg injuries) and we practised the relay running pass of a baton from right hand to left hand with the next runner taking a preliminary running start before receiving the baton in their left passing it over the their right for the next pass. Sound easy but it actually takes a bit of skill. We are not ready for the field yet (and it was raining!).
We only managed three different races today due to the difficulty I had commanding attention at the end of the day- it is too bad the amount of time wasted waiting for cooperation.

It has been triring but I hope worth it.
3pm dismissal
stay dry
Mrs. J.