During math we have a mix of students from my own class and the class next door.  Math is broken down into the “high group,” two “middle groups,” and a “low group.”  On Wednesday my class was having a mini “pop quiz” on fractions.  We like to keep testing the students on fractions to make sure they really understand the material.  However, when the word “quiz” was mentioned, the students went nuts and were nervous and getting upset.  We never officially tested the kids on fractions because they weren’t taking it in as well as they needed to in the given amount of time.  Instead, we gave mini assessments throughout the unit and finally moved on to decimals and have been incorporating fractions in the first 15 minutes every day.  My cooperating teacher and I thought things were improving with fractions based on class work, but the pop quiz somewhat proved us wrong.  I think the students were just nervous that it was a “quiz.”  Had the students been given the problems to do like every other day I think they would have done well.   One of the students stopped trying to follow along and began crying and making a fuss.  Another student was grunting and putting his head in his hands and on his head buried in his desk.  Another girl had the most distressed look on her face it was sad.  So, instead of just letting the students fall apart, my cooperating teacher sent me outside with 3 students to work in a small group and help them one-on-one.  The boy who was crying breezed through the problems and said to me, “I do better on my own, I don’t need help.”  So that was interesting.  It seemed as though he just got really stressed about the idea of a quiz and following along in the allotted time.  The girl needed a little help but also seemed like she just needed more time and a less stressful environment.  It’s sad and interesting to see how much of a disaster the “quiz” was simply because it was called a quiz.

This week had its ups and downs but the highlight of the week was a also wonderful reading lesson.  The students are reading from a “textbook” which has many short stories for each theme.  The theme of this unit is problem solving.  Although the students do not particularly enjoy these stories, they are generally compliant.  This week there was an extension to one particular story we did with an art connecting activity.  In this activity  the students wrote about what they saw and how it made them feel with three different art pieces.  They were to look at the piece as a whole, then look at details closely, then reflect and comment.  I had originally planned on the lesson taking about 20 minutes but it went so well and the students were very thorough with their work that it took about an hour and fifteen minutes.  We had a great discussion about each piece and they were very observant and thinking critically.  It was great to see and I loved that they were able to really delve into the assignment.

Thursday night was Lighted School House where parents and students were welcome to walk around the school and see the student’s classrooms.  This was a great experience and was fun to see all the students and parents who came.  Earlier in the day teachers were saying how this night is the best of all the nights they have to be here for unlike conferences.  I definitely think it is.  It was so nice to see the students who are maybe a bit shy or have some learning difficulties be so excited to show their parents what they have been working on in school.  My students were able to show their most recent writing on the computers, demonstrate how to use the microscopes and find the single celled organisms, venture to the compost bin, and much more.  I truly enjoyed seeing all the students and parents who were able to come.  I wish more families would have made it in, but I understand that families are busy.  It was nice to see a mix of the “good kids” and the students who have some behavior problems and to see them in a different atmosphere. I’m glad I got to experience a night like this.

On Wednesday at the very end of recess I witnessed a bit of a violent moment by one of the students.  It was indoor recess and my co-op was not in the room.  The kids were quiet and good the whole time but in the last 30 seconds one boy had a bad moment.  I saw him leap from his seat and lunge at another student with a pencil in his hand and grabbed the other boy’s shoulders.  I immediately stopped him and told him this was inappropriate behavior and not allowed, and that he owed me time after school.  If students are bad during school for whatever reason they can be kept for “respect time” with the teacher.  For the next hour the boy was furious with me.  Immediately after I told him to stay after school he sat at his desk, cried, then proceeded to get mad at me.  He had a individual pack of candy and began wringing it and staring at me, as if he was trying to rip my head off.   He growled, grunted, grinded his teeth at me, and mouthed “I hate you” and other phrases I caught here and there.  I went back and forth deciding what I should do at that point – look at him and prove to him that what he was doing wasn’t fazing me, or ignore him and not look at him at all.  I chose to ignore him.  What was done was done and he has had many problems hitting, kicking, shoving this boy that I have stopped before, so it was time he learned his lesson.  Meanwhile, as the child was visually distraught, another boy got upset because he didn’t understand why this child was in trouble.  That caused a whole other scene.  I didn’t have an opportunity to talk to my co-op until the kids went to Spanish, almost 2 hours later.  But, when I did, I told her what I saw, and the previous encounters I have witnessed, and that I obviously couldn’t just let this go and potentially have a student hurt.  She was very pleased with my actions, which was nice, and said that she would handle the situation after school. Hopefully he gets over it and doesn’t cause further problems because I punished him.