Well, It's a Start

We got off to a decent start this week. On the first day of school, we met outside in the parking lot that also doubles as a play area for the students. Yes, there are other areas to play, but about two-thirds of the asphalt is devoted to play. On Thursday morning, there were balloons set out, each one with a grade number on it. The students lined up around their balloons. When it was 8:00 the principal gave a little speech, then the eighth graders all came to the front door, and cut the ribbon that "opened" the school for the year. I always like that tradition.

Before school began, I walked over to the fifth graders to say hello. These were the students who were in my class last year. I got a lot of hugs and smiles. I love that class. It's going to take a lot for any other class to take up that much space in my heart. Since the first day, I always stop at the lunch tables when I see one of my kids there. I keep getting hugs from them. I really hope that never stops. I'd love to have them giving me hugs and smile when they are in eighth grade.

So far the student teacher has been fairly fine. I've spent my time going over procedures; she has gone over an interest inventory called, "My Book of Things and Stuff." The students list their favorite subject, where they would like to go on field trips, and multiple pages asking kids how they like to learn. One page asked alone, in pairs, groups, or whole class. Another instructs kids that they are going to learn about houses and what would they like to do: Build a model? Design a house? Read about houses? There are more pages like that, and I can tell a lot by what they'd like to do. I also like to go over that with the parents to see if the students write anything that surprises the parents.

When we practice at the dojo, our chief instructor walks around and observes while the students practice the technique. If he sees something wrong, he'll work with an individual. If he sees several students doing the technique wrong, he'll stop everyone and correct. He'll also say something to students if he sees good things, too. Yesterday he said something to me. I was in the middle of doing a technique so my concentration was focused on that, not on the specific words he was saying as he walked past, but I got the overall idea. The part of what he said that made it to my brain told me that he was telling me that I was doing the technique about as well as it could be done. I could not have been more pleased.