Third Week of School - Thursday, Sept. 17th 2009

Another Thursday, which means another two-hour block of time where little or no classroom work gets done (at least by me), what with back-to-back-to-back-to-back periods of art, library, recess and music, although it was fun to observe them in art class creating pastels. The school does not officially have an art teacher or program, but one of the student's mother is a local artist, and she volunteers to come in two or three times a month to teach art to different classes (making sure that her son's class, which is the one I am assigned to, is included in the mix). It is actually a very generous donation of her time and talents, although she does tend to be a bit over-protective of her son, and she actually suggested to Mr. M that her son lead a classroom art activity, which I found a bit presumptuous (as did Mr. M, but who is caught on the horns of a dilemna since he does not want to risk offending her). I'm not quite sure why the kids need a library session once a week (I would think by the time you are in the fifth and sixth grade you pretty much know what you are doing in the library) but I guess it's still a form of learning.

The afternoon was devoted to literature and writing (my two favorite subjects as a teacher, if we are allowed to have favorites) and I also got a chance to grade some more papers. This paper was a really innovative idea. The kids had to write a "behavior" contract, which would list a "crime" committed by a student, the people he hurt, the punishment, and the reasons for the punishment. Most kids did find with the content, but they were also being graded on presentation, and some of them really were quite creative. One kid did his on a brown paper bag, but he did something to it to make it look like parchment paper, so the contract appeared to resemble an ancient document. Other kids used inventive fonts to create the look and feel of a legal document. There was also a lot of creativity when it came to the so-called crimes, as wel as some of the punishments. (Actually, if truth be told, some of their work reminded me of similar things I attempted as a sixth-grader).