First week of 100% is behind me. It’s Saturday after a 10 hour sleep, but I’m still feeling the effects of it. I’ve been battling a cold all week, which has come at just the right time. We’ve also had above 30 degree weather, which has wound up the kids and made them extra hyper. It’s like they can smell summer coming, and have decided that they don’t need to do any more work. At this point it is getting close to the end of the year, and they are in grade 7, so I can hardly blame them for wanting a bit of slack. Unfortunately I do have some work planned for the last 5 weeks, so they won’t be getting off that easy.

So what did I learn this week? 1) kids like QR codes (or any technology really), 2) they don’t like analyzing poetry very much, 3) It would take years of creative drama to get this class to a place where they can concentrate silently on a group exercise for more than three seconds,  4) I will still continue to try,  5) grade 7s like learning about gladiators, 6) many grade 7 girls are embarrassed to try high jump in front of the class, and finally, 7) hands on science labs are fun and a lot of work.

We had two TOCs this week as well. It’s been good for me to talk to different teachers and get ‘the scoop’ on what it’s like to be a TOC in Surrey. I’ve also seen a few different classroom management strategies, which has been a good learning experience. For the most part, the TOCs tell me that this class is incredibly talkative, but they generally seem like nice kids (not exactly news to me). Thursday morning a few of the more ‘talkative’ members of the class were away- what an amazing morning we had! I can only dream of what class would be like if it was always like that. I could see that a few of the kids are actually really hard workers and not naturally disruptive, they just get riled up by the instigators. On Thursday I changed the seats in class again, in the hopes of creating more harmonious groups and less talking. Time will tell if this will make any difference. I’m not holding my breath.