Just Take the First Step

It's quite possible that a day doesn't go by that in some form or another I ask a student or several students to step outside of their comfort zones. I may not say it like that, but the content may be beyond what they are comfortable with, the learning setting might stretch them, they might have to work with people they don't get along with...and the list goes own.

I suppose it's only fair that I demonstrate to them how I've been pushed outside my comfort zone. Today was a perfect example. The P.E. teacher had mentioned (more than once) that if I "ever wanted to join them for P.E." she could use an extra person (with eleven 5th & 6th graders I guess that's fair). Well, anyone who knows me knows how much I love the outdoors including hiking, biking, canoeing, and swimming. However, I am far from athletically coordinated. Anyone who knows 5th & 6th graders knows how brutally honest and judgmental they can be --you can imagine my excitement about participating in P.E. Yet, I did it. I got out and played soccer --a sport I never spent anytime doing. As in, zero energies from my childhood were focused on soccer. I wiped out. I got tired. I wasn't confident in my abilities. And I would totally do it again.

A day in the life of...

Like I previously stated, every class is unique. I have a group of 5th & 6th graders who like getting stickers on their papers -especially scratch and sniff stickers. Who would have thought?! My class last year would have mocked and teased me incessantly if I had marked their papers with stickers (even if they had secretly enjoyed it).


In other news, I have picked up an additional job this semester working in our childcare/preschool after school two days a week. I have to say, they test my patience sometimes, but overall it's proven to be quite entertaining (no, I don't miss teaching preschool full time -still not my calling). There is one particular enthusiastic, extremely animated three year old girl. The first day I met her she acted like we were (and had been) best friends. As she was leaving one day (a day that I was not working in childcare) she stopped by my classroom to tell me about her day. When I saw her the following afternoon she ran to me, hugged me and exclaimed, "I haven't seen you in a long time...like 4 days!" I guess when you're 3 going 24 hours might feel like 4 days.

Pollution

Well we're here back in the swing of the school year. Every class has it's own uniqueness and that keeps life interesting.

We've been learning and talking about pollution in science and today I had my students respond to a writing prompt where I asked them to explain pollution to someone who didn't understand it. Here a few snippets of their responses:

"Polluted mean careless people leave junk around and so it can go into the water. It can make it hard to purify our water when that happens."

"Things that are okay to throw out the car window are apple cores, banana peels, orange peels, etc. The things that are not okay to throw out your car window are paper, Styrofoam, egg cartons, plastic, etc."

"Littering and pollution shouldn't be happening because we need stuff to eat. We need air, but if this keeps happening we will die."


I think they get it.