The Weekly Five

1. What did I do to help a student this week?

So next week my students have a field trip planned to attend a local pumpkin patch. Because I have behavioral kiddos, they needed to earn it. This week started their "earning period" where they have to earn at least an 85% for 5/7 days. They've been reminded of this every day when we do our morning meeting and my aide and I constantly remind them during the day. I have one student that is dangerously close to not joining us. Today I pulled him aside, told him that he needs to bring his A-game these next few days, and we decided to tape a picture of a pumpkin on his desk as a visual reminder. Although he had a rough day, he loved being able to look down at the pumpkin and remind himself what he was earning. 

We love pumpkins in our class :)

2. How did I contribute to a positive classroom environment?

This was a tough one this week. I love to joke around with my students. Each Friday I let students choose one song to listen to after our assessments are done for the day. YouTube always has those funky commercials playing and today we watched 6 Suave commercials. I joked with my students and said, "this cherry blossom scent would smell lovely on you guys!" They all laughed and said, "eww!"

3. What did I do to collaborate with my aide this week? Did it work?

Each morning we chit chat about the day and progress about our kiddos. Today my wonderful aide was absent and I realized that I never gave her my cell phone number! I left a post-it note on her desk with my contact info. :)

4. What is one event that made you thankful for your job this week?

This week I received so many "Mom, Mommy, Momma, Mom can I..." Although odd, because I'm only 22, it was nice to hear that my students are that comfortable with me. Five weeks of UNO at lunch time is proving to be worth it!

5. What did I do to relieve some stress this week?

Well that's a tough one. This week was only 4-days long, thanks to Columbus Day. As great as it was to enjoy a long weekend, it was tough getting my students back into routine. We even had to practice walking in the hallway and eating lunch in the cafeteria. Talk about embarrassing! I was supposed to go to yoga this morning at 6am but I had too many early morning errands to run beforehand that I wouldn't have time to shower and drive myself to school by 7:45am. I did not achieve any "stress relief" this week so that might explain the way I feel right now.

Ahh. Here's to a better week next week!