A Sense of ....?!?!

Hmmm for some reason, my kids have been very rowdy lately. I don't know, maybe it's because my attitude is a lot more easy going with them now. I've had some struggles with balancing class management in my room. For the most part, I've actually been this firm teacher who has displayed very little personality with the students to maintain order.

The past month or two however, I've totally changed my ways. I'm more easy going with the students and you can tell that they find me more approachable. One kid who's "Mr. Bad Boy" has really had a turn around with me. He doesn't give me the scowl and doesn't refuse to answer when I talk to him now. He actually smiles at me. Don't get me wrong...he's still bad! He's a bit more receptive to me now though.

Another student was joking with me today when I took them out to build snowmen for Gym. She was talking about how her hands were cold and I told her to put her hands in her pockets to warm them up. She then proceed to tell me, "I can do the magic. I will get my gloves from tha classroom." She reached into her pocket and then "instantly" pulled out her gloves and made some "brrooom!!!" sound to show that it was some magic she performed. I thought that was hilarious. She is truly not a behavioural child but is in my class because she is ESL so her broken english was trying to tell me this story and yet I somehow managed to put together what she said.

I think I was told to start firm with them from the start and then work on being their friends towards the last half so I could really be rememembered as a teacher who cared for them LOL. He told me this? I don't know if it works. All I can do is teach myself. Hmmmm....there's a lot of pressure at school to keep classroom order so what is modelled to me by the upper management is what I'm expected to use. Despite all the advice I've been given and despite my upper management, I don't know if I can use those techniques unless they're comfortable to me.

And that snow experience was really fun. My class rolled huge snowballs and I picked them up and stacked them. The first head was wayyyy to small and then the last head we used was as big as the other two parts of the body. The whole thing fell over and we all laughed. Man, I kept thinking that whole time "how I wish I brought my camera".....my kids and I had a blast. I know I complain a lot about teaching but there is always good in the profession. I still have so much to complain about, but at least I can say I've been enjoying myself for the past few months. There are certain moments that we all hold close to us in life that we'll never forget. This was definitely one of them. Amazing!

My coworker told me not to think of the politics and battle them. She told me to focus and do what I got to do. I have to do it for the students or it won't be rewarding. Words of wisdom. I could almost sense God was telling me that truth through her. The words have impacted me and I still hold close to me since she spoke them to me. After all, who'd of thunk I would be enjoying myself? Man, that makes each day go by so much faster....:P