I'm a genius

here's why i'm a genius. i thought of something that no TFA teacher or credential program has ever suggested that I do. I had my kids do jigsaw puzzles for their first day of sitting in groups. my thing is that i began the school year with the students in rows. i decided this week that management is under control, and that i need them to be able to ask each other for help instead of constantly needing me. so we started with group work today. there were some tables that were awesome at putting together puzzles. In my last class (the really difficult one), a bunch of groups didn't finish. go figure. they are kind of dysfunctional in general. i am very tempted to start moving kids around, but i decided that i would give them some time, and give them a chance. a few of them seemed like they would truly be disasters, but i saw over the course of the period that things did come together. that was the point of the puzzle. i chose it as the thing that would most likely bond them together and let them compete in a fun way. i also really liked it because you can't copy off people--i found a variety of 6 different 100 piece puzzles at the dollar store. i had to get a total of 8 puzzles for my 8 groups, but they couldn't copy each others ideas.

it's been a REALLY boring week in my classroom and i felt like we all needed a little pick me up. so, i took the plunge and did groups. it was a fun and successful day, and i feel like the puzzles kind of brought my kids together in a way to help them realize they could get along with each other.

now i have a few students hanging out in my classroom helping me out and just hanging out. they came in and announced that they wanted to tell me all about Vietnam--two of them are Vietnamese--so they told me stories about their trips last summer. it was very cute. now they are writing the "do nows" for next week. those are the warm up activities that students do right when they come in the classroom. basically it's journal prompts--so far they have come up with "would you rather eat 1,000 chips or 1,000 pieces of your favorite candy and why," "what would you do if you were the last person on earth and why?", "what would you do if you were president of the United States?" and "the vacation is coming up. what are you going to do? why?"
it's nice cause i don't have to do it and they are excited because they will see something they did in the classrooom.

three day weekend, here i come!!