Magnified

Yesterday was another one of those days (that happen quite often) where my class feels out of control.  A student threw a soccer ball--during class.  Two boys escaped to recess early--I retrieved them and made them stay in for five minutes during recess.  I had a new student who 1) sung tunelessly all day  2) didn't do any work 3) cried a few times.  There are about five people in the building who are able to set up new passwords for students.  None of them were there yesterday.

One of my very hardest students was in show off mode for the new student and he kept shouting out sassy answers to questions in an effort to be funny.

It wasn't funny.

We had a counselor lesson and the counselor talked to them about goals.  The above student's desk is strategically placed very close to my desk.  When the counselor had them write down their goals, he wrote he wanted to behave better at school.  He wrote: I will do it by listening to my teacher and being nice to other students and doing my work.

It melted my heart.  We are all trying.

***

Mark came to my class for the afternoon.  We did science.  They built bridges out of paper and tested them with pennies.  Also Mark kept sneaking Skittles and they all heard him so he didn't get away with it.

Mark walked around giving them tips.  But this group didn't even need much help.  They were pretty impressive.

After the bridges, we played with tracks and cars.

We tested the sweet spot between having an incline for the cars to go fast and too much of an incline where the cars fell off.  At the end we had a bracket to figure out the fastest car.  

Basically it was a big mess, but fun, and we got it all cleaned up.

I asked Mark what it was like to be in my classroom.  I said, "Does it seem like me or different?"

He said, "It kind of scared me.  It brought me back to being in the school room, but magnified."

I didn't think I was that scary.  I'm still not very scary.  But I'll admit to a teacher voice. A teacher/mom voice.

After Mark left the school, he went for a haircut.  Adam, the king of the before and after, took these shots.

I don't know why the sunglasses were part of the pictures.

And speaking of magnified, that kid...needed...a haircut.