Monday and...Wednesday?

Monday

Not sure why exactly I skipped Monday on the last blog post. Oh, I remember - because I was trying to block it out. Monday was a really rough day, even though the CRT (casual relief teacher - sub) with me is the regular music teacher - and is super awesome - but our kids (on the spectrum and not) do not do well with change. Having their teacher gone for a week is a big change for these kids. There was a huge number of aggressive/openly defiant incidents, four timeouts, and a LOT of disrespect. In fact, we spent the last hour of the day (after lunch) in a deep conversation about respect, trust, and following directions. Cyn and I went home absolutely buggered, and tried to get enough sleep for a new day on Tuesday.

Tuesday

Tuesday was a better day. At the beginning of the day, we challenged the group to get no names on the board (a warning system for students who are disruptive/disrespectful/etc) throughout the whole day. Generally throughout the day we get 5-7 names including sometimes one or two in timeout. Monday, when Cathy asked the group if we could go a whole day with no names on the board, lots of the kids said no. Ugh. What wonderful faith they have in themselves and each other.

So, Tuesday, we decided to start a new positive reinforcement. If we can go a whole day without getting names on the board, we will get to have a huge game time on Friday afternoon. Throughout the day, we have been passing out small pieces of orange paper to students who are doing well, and having them write their names on the paper and put them in a jar. On Friday morning, we'll draw a name out, and that person gets to choose which game we play. So, obviously, the more orange cards they earn, the more likely they are to get to choose the games. It has been working well so far. Tuesday, Cyn and I passed out 81 cards. 

Wednesday

This morning, we challenged the kids to try to earn more than 81 cards as a class (we're really pushing this teamwork thing). After school, we counted them up, and they earned 117!! Wahoo! They will be excited to see/talk about this tomorrow, and our challenge tomorrow is for them to earn more than 117. If we follow this pattern, this will happen:-D Unfortunately, the kids spend a lot of time out of the classroom on Thursdays, so we may not see them enough for them to earn 117.

Also - I developed a really awesome spelling activity for my kids! This morning when I was talking to Sam, I was talking about that I needed to have a spelling activity for a short period of time today. I got an idea and implemented it today and it was a huge success! Spelling Theatre. Similar to Reader's Theatre, but the students write their own scripts using their spelling words. This requires the students to not only know their words, spell them correctly, know their definition, but also to be able to use them fluently in conversation! We didn't all finish today, but I have saved some time on Friday (and maybe tomorrow) for finishing the scripts up and practicing, so we can perform Friday afternoon before our game time. I can't wait to watch them! Some have a lot of personality (because my kids have a lot of personality) and even the kids who we really had to push to get moving got a lot done on them! So exciting! :-D 

Tomorrow should be interesting, as we don't have kids for very long, and I believe we have our last round robin sport! 

My group will be staying at our school to play along with several other sports teams and some of the teams will be bussing to a different primary school to play there. I hope my softball team does well tomorrow! More than anything, I hope I have all nine players tomorrow! Whew! I'll let you know how it goes in the afternoon!

Lots of love,

Megan