Today was so much fun and so hard at the same time. It was our 100th day of school, and my kiddos were excited! I was too - I love celebrating the 100th day with kindergartners. This day was one of my fondest memories from student teaching.
Today didn't let me down! We had a so much fun looking for the numbers 1-100 in our number scavenger hunt, counting out 100 pieces of food for snack, counting out the pieces of items in our 100 More/Less activity, wearing our super fun 100th day hats, make pictures out of the numbers 1, 0, and 0, and writing about our favorite memory so far this year. Busy easily describes today.
It was fun and exciting and wonderful!
Except...... with any exciting, fun, and wonderful day, behavior issues come out of the woodwork. There is almost always a constant, quiet whir to my classroom; students are quietly talking about whatever interests them. On days like today, that quiet whir becomes a loud roar. As can be expected, we have the normal kindergarten troubles with friendships on a typical day. We can normally talk about them and move on. Days like today, however, bring a whole different level of friendship troubles; they bring tears and meltdowns and whining. Any average day will bring the occasional rule breaking. Here or there, a student might lose control and interrupt or hit. These special days are when I see this behavior escalating; on days like today, I see major physical aggression, disrespect, and non-compliance.
I struggle so much with this. These special days have all of the potential to be memory-making days, but I have to go into them with the understanding that the behaviors are going to be far from typical. There are so many factors at play,(especially today - we had our first full week of school since the beginning of December and it is a Friday and a special day) and keeping appropriate expectations becomes my hardest challenge. I want the students to have fun and to enjoy the day, but at the same time, I want them to be good classroom citizens.
My teaching heart goes from beyond excited at the engagement of my students to completely broken by the way we treat each other.
I loved today, but in many ways, I'm glad we are done with it. We'll keep trucking and continue to try to improve. Valentine's Day is next Friday, and that will bring all kinds of excitement. Maybe, on that day dedicated to love, we'll be able to control our bodies and respect each other.
Today didn't let me down! We had a so much fun looking for the numbers 1-100 in our number scavenger hunt, counting out 100 pieces of food for snack, counting out the pieces of items in our 100 More/Less activity, wearing our super fun 100th day hats, make pictures out of the numbers 1, 0, and 0, and writing about our favorite memory so far this year. Busy easily describes today.
It was fun and exciting and wonderful!
Except...... with any exciting, fun, and wonderful day, behavior issues come out of the woodwork. There is almost always a constant, quiet whir to my classroom; students are quietly talking about whatever interests them. On days like today, that quiet whir becomes a loud roar. As can be expected, we have the normal kindergarten troubles with friendships on a typical day. We can normally talk about them and move on. Days like today, however, bring a whole different level of friendship troubles; they bring tears and meltdowns and whining. Any average day will bring the occasional rule breaking. Here or there, a student might lose control and interrupt or hit. These special days are when I see this behavior escalating; on days like today, I see major physical aggression, disrespect, and non-compliance.
I struggle so much with this. These special days have all of the potential to be memory-making days, but I have to go into them with the understanding that the behaviors are going to be far from typical. There are so many factors at play,(especially today - we had our first full week of school since the beginning of December and it is a Friday and a special day) and keeping appropriate expectations becomes my hardest challenge. I want the students to have fun and to enjoy the day, but at the same time, I want them to be good classroom citizens.
My teaching heart goes from beyond excited at the engagement of my students to completely broken by the way we treat each other.
I loved today, but in many ways, I'm glad we are done with it. We'll keep trucking and continue to try to improve. Valentine's Day is next Friday, and that will bring all kinds of excitement. Maybe, on that day dedicated to love, we'll be able to control our bodies and respect each other.