Wow, what a Wednesday.

Hello again. I sure hope you aren't getting tired of school stories because today was another eventful day with my 4th grade boys. Looking back, I can't really remember my morning or other parts of the day. It all seems like one big blur. My day started with the bell ringing, which meant I quickly got up from computer desk and opened my door in order to greet my students. My most challenging one came running down the hall, wearing his baseball hat. I commented on what a beautiful hat it was but that in school we are not allowed to wear them. He immediately raised his voice and said, "No, it's mine. You can't have it. I bought it with my own money. It's mine. I'll wear it if I want to." And that was how we started our day..

First period we begin with math, which is always an adventure. At Fawzia Sultan we follow the Saxon Math Program, a scripted curriculum with a math meeting and lesson to do daily. Turns out, it takes us about a day and a half or two days to complete one. Today we learned about how to act, draw and solve some, some more (addition) and some, some went away (subtraction) problems. I "changed" our Reading Corner into a library/movie theater/restaurant and asked different numbers of boys (only those who were sitting quietly and showing me appropriate behavior) to travel to one of the locations to help illustrate our problems. We then drew pictures to represent the word problem and solved it together on the board. Math, I'd say was the smoothest part of the day.

I believe I had second and third period to plan while my students were in Arabic and Islamic. I defused an argument between two of my students, one of whom does not attend Islamic class and instead receives lessons at home. My other students tease him and say that he is not Muslim and he is not Kuwaiti. I did some lesson planning and preparing for the afternoon during that hour break, however, I have to admit that my Reading Corner looked quite tempting and seemed like a nice place to lay down and shut my eyes.

During Science we continued learning about the Food Pyramid and focused on following directions. While Rana was off on her break, I attempted to get all eight boys to listen, stay in their seats and learn. We talked about the food groups and how much food we should eat from each. I also tried "making" a fruit salad on the board. I drew a big bowl and did my best with my limited artistic abilities to add the fruits that were named. Some of my students were confused and wanted to add broccoli and carrots to the salad. I'm not sure if they have ever eaten fruit salad. Next week, after our field trip to the fruit and vegetable market we will be spending a class period in the school kitchen and inshAllah if all goes well, we will get a chance to try our school-made fruit salad and other healthy snacks.

I can't remember exactly how or what happened but two of the three students who require most of my time and discipline, lost the privilege of eating with their friends during break. Wow, what an effective consequence! I had them sit by themselves to eat their snack as they watched the rest of the classes sitting around, eating and talking together. Seeing their response to losing time with their friends and seeing what they were missing out on, I have developed a behavior chart that inshAllah I will begin next week, where based on their behavior during school periods they can earn certain privileges or rewards throughout the day: 1-3 they can earn break with their friends, periods 4-6 lunch/recess and periods 7-8 a note home or time with the school psychologist. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Jumping ahead.. my mind is a little hazy right now (it is not even 9 PM and I'm already in pajamas and ready to sleep). At some point during the day, one of my students got curious and decided to jump up to look over the ledge from our second floor hallway. Although there is a railing that blocks students from being able to fall over, this curiosity lead to other students wanting to hang from the railing which in turn, lead to a conversation in the classroom about our behavior in the hallway and the importance of being safe.

Lunch break. This week I am not on duty and get 25 quiet minutes to myself. I spend my break in the school prayer room, where 5-7 high school students, one 5th grade student and I pray in congregation behind the Islamic Studies teacher. It is a great part of my day. Let's me gather my thoughts and prepare for the last hour and a half of the school day. As I returned from my re-boosting zuhr session in the prayer room, I was greeted by one of the on-duty teachers. She asked if I had seen one of my students, meaning he was not to be found outside on the playground or in our elementary hallway. While I went to gather my class from the playground, Rana walked downstairs to find him in the school psychologist's office. He had gotten upset that someone wasn't sharing and decided to leave. He and I spoke in the hallway about his safety. While most of my class went to the computer lab (I had three remain behind for their behavior during recess) I spoke with this student and had him write a letter of apology to the teacher who was on duty. In the letter he stated that he was angry and was about to leave the building but he didn't because he would have been lost and he was sorry for making her sad.

Transitions, as most teachers will tell you, are tough. Although I taught (modeled, practiced, and also reviewed)a specific lesson on behavior in the hallway, my boys always find a way to make it interesting. As I stopped in the hallway, waiting for my line to become straight, one of my boys decided to write in pencil on his white uniform shirt I HATE SCHOOL. He then proceeded to show it to the student behind him and shouted, "I hate school. Who is with me?". This student, only nine years old, is by far the biggest boy in my class, probably in the whole elementary school. He just had his annual check up by the school nurse who told me he weights 74 kilos (equivalent to around 163 pounds). I could picture him, inciting a small riot of 9 year old boys who had had it with me and my classroom/hallway expectations. To say the least, I wasn't amused.

We ended our day doing some creative writing. We just finished the first chapter in the book The Adventures of Spider, which is titled How Spider Got a Thin Waist. I asked my students to write their own explanation of how Spider got a thin waist. Several came up with very clever ideas. In one story, Spider was in the ocean and a shark bit his sides. Another included a magic star that shrunk his waist. As the end of the day grew nearer, one of my student's medication wore away. We finished our day talking about why it is not appropriate to draw on our bodies with marker.

Busy day. Tomorrow is Thursday which means one work day before the weekend. All I can say to sum up today is wow, what a Wednesday.

Disclaimer: I love my students. I told a friend today that I couldn't imagine not spending my days with them. Although at times my patience wears thin, they are great. Imagine how boring my blog would be if I had students who sat quietly in their chairs, answered my questions and followed the rules. I added new pictures of my students' work. Most of the pictures are from their daily journals. I like to sit and read through them during my free periods or at night when I am feeling stressed. No matter how much they may test me throughout the school day, they always write something in their journals that makes me smile and love them a little bit more.