Refocusing, Resolutions and Restrooms

        Last week was a bit of a crazy week in room 8, not only for my students, but also for myself.  My cooperating teacher was the acting Dean all week long so she was not in the classroom. Since it is only my second week of student teaching I am not allowed to sub in the classroom yet.  Dumb rule but I guess I have to do what my University says!  The students had a sub all week long, which was very new for them since the only sub they have ever had this year was me!  They do not understand new people, and for some reason my kids thought this was the perfect chance to show just how crazy they could be. My cooperating teacher wanted me to spend the week observing other teachers in the buliding so the sub was all alone in the classroom. My students do not deal well with change and most of them will take any oppourtunity they can to see what they can get away with- I have learned this is very typical behavior for second graders! Needless to say by the end of the week she was very worn out and the students were tired of dealing with changes and a new teaching style.  As an added stress they had NWEA testing all week so they were tired of that and done dealnig with the stress of meeting their test goals.  After talking to my cooperating teacher and discussing how last week went, we decided that we needed to start the week with a class meeting to get refocused on the social contract that they made at the beginning of the year.  This was a huge eye opener for me because the students really opened up and explained to me the troubles they were having in class and how we as teachers could help them to stay focused and learn while they are in our room.  This was a great experience for me and it was good to be able to refocus after a hard week in the classroom.

    This really has nothing to do with anything that I am talking about, but as a class we made resloution hats after we came back from break.  It was a fun craft and really helped the students to make some goals in the classroom.   They are reminded of their resloutions everytime they enter into the classroom and many students have been working hard to keep them!

     I have come to the conclusion that the restrooms are the craziest place in the whole entire school.  This is the place where the students feel that it is okay to turn into wild animals and forget any training that they have had in any area.  In my opinion students treat the bathrooms similarly to how people treat nightclubs.  THEY ARE WILD!  In the past few weeks I have encountered some very crazy situations.  I have caught kids climbing over stall walls, racing other students to see who could slide under the stall door the fastest, and even some kids washing their hair under the sinks.  In addition to these situations, I have experienced a child locking himself in a stall and crying because he had an accident, I have also witnessed a child peeing his pants on the way to the bathroom.  It has been a long time since I was in elementary school and I have forgotten how crazy the restroom is, but these students have reminded me very quickly how crazy an elementary restroom can be!