Monday, Day Ten

Today was an interesting day. We retaught the fourth grade math then retested. This time they did well. Finally we could move on. We are now discussing frequency tables. I have the students performing their own surveys so that we can learn different things about the data. I bought them all notebooks for writing math terms. I type the term and definition out for them but I still require them to write them in their notebooks. It always helps me to remember things if I write them down so we will try that for a while. I am just debating if they should also write concepts in the notebook. I have told them before a test they could take the notebooks home with them to study.

We had a real discipline problem today in the third grade class. Student J did not want to do any writing in his workbook. My ST asked him to "please keep working there is a lot of material they needed to cover". J just did not want to do anything. He is EBD, but he is scary to the other students. Once he gets into a mood he gets what the students call "freaky looking". Some of the students are actually frightened by him, they will move away when they see his face turn "freaky looking". My ST was trying to ignore him during teaching but it eventually became impossible. J was warned that a call would be placed to his parents he mellowed for just a moment, then he tried to rip his workbook in half. My ST finally told him that was it just get out of the classroom. J thought he could open his book and all would be well, but the ST told him it was too late now. At this point I thought of our reading in Love & Logic (Fay & Funk, 1995). We were just reading about disicpline issues and one recourse was to move the student to another classroom. That is what I thought was going on here. It was not that. J waited outside until my ST finished the thought he was working on. Then the ST went outside the door to speak to him. I don't know exactly what was said but I was told a few things after the rest of the class left. My ST told him that he does not like to write misconduct slips because it makes it harder on the student (at home and at school), but he would if necessary. J agreed to linger in the hall until he could collect himself and be a productive part of the class. After standing in the hall for about 5-7 minutes he quietly knocked on the door. The ST teacher motioned him in and he was fine. The rest of the day went just fine for him.

My third grader that we are working with TOUCH math on finished all his work and was given computer time. We have found a game online where the students can practice their multiplication tables while washing cars and they eventually end up in a race. When I approached him he was just clicking answers until he got the right one. I pulled out the numbers and made him count to tell me what the multiplication problem was. We made some progress but he was getting frustrated because he could not recognize the numbers and know the answers right off. He is doing better, we will keep working with it and see how it goes. Today, I plan to send a letter home to the parents along with the TOUCH materials to ask for assistance. The parents can be a great help if they will do it with him regularly.