New School Year – Days 21 and 22

5th graders were supposed to be reading silently. A boy raised his hand. “She (points the girl sitting behind him) keeps sticking her tongue out at me.”
Me: “How can you possibly see her do that when you are staring at your book?”

Why would parents let their kind of nerdy 5th grade son go to school wearing an orange and black striped shirt, red belt, and brown/blue/tan plaid shorts? Or, did he choose his own clothes?

It was so beautiful outside on Thursday that I gave the kids and extra 10 minutes of recess. But at Friday’s school, I learned that this is NOT allowed – it’s the principal’s decision and teachers get in trouble in that Westland school if they do this. I don’t agree. Offering extra recess can be a reward as well as a wise decision with a rambunctious group.

Plymouth-Canton school district has THREE high schools on one large “park.” Kids take classes at all three buildings – Plymouth, Canton and Salem. It’s a good hike from one to the other (as much as half a mile). Another interesting thing – Plymouth has what I would call banks of lockers – they are 4 feet high and there are 5 rows of them, back to back, in the location that I saw. This makes it a great place to hang out a few minutes with friends, and it puts them outside of the hallway where everyone needs to pass to their classes. Because they are low, everyone can see over them, and they are vaulted at the top so that people won’t sit on them. Great design, Plymouth!

This morning I monitored two Psych classes as the high school students researched Sleep Disorders using the library computers. The media center is set up so that there are several sections so that various classes can work in there at the same time. It did get pretty noisy though since one class was allowed to talk rather loudly. 😦 Not mine. 🙂 I also sat in a resource room that had plenty of adults to do the work – so – since there was nothing for me to do, I drew a quick picture of a student – which the other adults thought was quite good. 🙂

Thursday was 5th grade and then 6th grade in the same school and it went well. Friday was Psych at Plymouth High School and then first grade in Westland. Since HS starts early, I had to be there at 6:45 am and stay until 10:30 a.m. Since elementary starts later, my half day there didn’t start until 12:21 pm so I had almost a two-hour break. I stopped in and visited with Mom and Dad for awhile.

A first grader was sitting sadly on a bench at recess because she had been reprimanded by her teacher during the morning, and marked “down” on the behavior chart. I pointed out that it would be a better idea for her to run and play and talk during recess because it was the only time she could do so, and after that she’d have to go back to being quiet and still for the rest of the day. I also told her that running around would make her feel better. She believed me. 🙂