2nd Week of School - Wed., Sept. 9th, 2009

I observed a fun and interesting social studies activity today. Our first social studies unit is about American Indians, so the class has been divided into six "tribes," each a real Native American tribe. The first thing each tribe had to do was "settle" an area of the classroom (no more than 144 sq. feet) and they would be able to use whatever materials or resources they found in their space. Mr. M gave them a lot of instructions and rules regarding the area they occupied (e.g., no electricity, no pillaging through other student's personal belongings, etc.) and then let them loose for about 30 minutes. Predictably, the noise level increased dramatically, but it was really fun and instructive to watch how the kids made decisions, and some of the assumptions they made about what they would be able to do with their space. Of course one group claimed the area where I was staked out, and even went so far to declare that since I was in the area, I was now their "slave" and had to do whatever they told me. I quickly informed them that there was going to be a slave rebellion, and that they didn't want me as their enemy (good-natured humor that they all understood). I also went around the room to observe and listen in on some of the other conversations amongst the various groups. I thought it was a really cool educational activity as well as helping to hone social skills.

Today we also had our first "serious" discipline incident, with one of our students getting into a conflict with another sixth grader from a different class. It was really good experience for me to see how this things arise and (hopefully) get resolved, from multiple perspectives: the teachers (both my master teacher and the teacher from the other child's class), the parents (e-mails and phone calls) and the child himself, as well as being a good reason to keep an extra eye on the boy and how he relates to others. Right now it looks like the situation may have been diffused, but it bears monitoring.