Today was a very, very productive day in our class. We moved on to our next lesson in Math, where we talked about all the practical uses for a hundreds chart. By the way, we're using a 120s chart now! I've heard they're all the rage down in the States and I can see why. Many children, when asked to, for example, count by 10s, starting at 75, have trouble when they get to 100. By having this tool to refer too, this will allow the boys and girls to see the number that comes next and make better connections. Seeing how the numbers work will also help the students when it comes time to counting money. Counting money can be very challenging for some kids because they need to skip count by many different denominations. My hope is this will help them to see the connection now and be more successful when the money unit rolls around later in the year.
The boys and girls also received their slates today! Woo-hoo! They were so thrilled! We *had* to start using them right away! We began with a few two-digit addition questions and everyone did really well! It was like a game show in our class with everyone working so hard to solve their problems. I didn't do this on purpose, but handing them out on a rainy day was a great way to keep everyone engaged and on task.
In our Literacy Block, we continued with our writing-about-reading activity we began yesterday. I am asking the students to write about their connections to the story (Those Shoes by Maribeth Boelts). The main character wants a pair of fancy-schmancy shoes and I would like the boys and girls to tell me how they can relate to this story. Many students finished the activity today and I'm very pleased with the quality of their work. We have some great writers in our class.
I had an interesting day today myself. A lightbulb went off on the drive home. During lunch hour, I emailed back and forth with a company I buy my clipart from. I was confused by a part of the checkout process on their site. Rather than address my question personally, they kept sending me "cut and paste" responses, directing me to various parts of their site to find my answers. The problem was, their responses didn't help because my question couldn't be answered by "just reading this section". I kept at them and continued to ask my question and finally gave up. The entire experience made me feel like no one really cared what I had to say and they just wanted to respond to my email, but not "respond" to my email, if you know what I mean. Needless to say, I'm not doing business with them anymore.
During my drive, I was thinking to my self, "Thank goodness my classroom doesn't work this way." Can you imagine how a child would feel if they weren't treated with respect and given an opportunity for authentic engagement? I felt disrespected today. I felt like I wasn't being heard. So that brings me to my lightbulb moment. Starting tomorrow, I am really going to encourage the students in my class to participate more fully. I want hands up and ideas shared. I have always encouraged kids to participate, but tomorrow, we're taking it up a notch. Everyone deserves to have an opportunity to speak, to be heard and to engage in authentic, 100% real, not cut and pasted conversation. Please encourage your child to share, especially the quieter, shy child. They deserve the very best and whatever we can do to make that happen...well, let's do it.
So clipart company...you taught this teacher a lesson. Your customer service is well, lackluster, but the flip-side of that is this: I realized today how much I value genuine connections and that's a win for everyone.
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| Slates are great! |
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