Teacher Reflection (MARS) for November 24, 2010

Today was the day before Thanksgiving Break. I wanted to finish up the lessons for this unit. I presented a short lesson and students worked together in groups. After recess and phy. ed., we did a little more instruction on using the calculator to find square roots. I was a little (okay, more than a little) embarrassed that one of my math cooperative groups was still having problems working together! A parent volunteer was helping in my class, and I just think I have talked with my drama group enough times that they should KNOW how to behave with each other! Then, during recess, I had students in from both sixth grade classes because they had not finished their science work. For some reason I was having trouble hooking up a speaker for my movies that reviewed the material, and of course the kids were loud and restless. By the time I had it all working and the group on task, the parent volunteer had left. However, I don't know why he would ever want to come back. I know I didn't!

Luckily, the rest of the day went very well, so we left for break on a good note! I guess it is a good idea to back off on the instruction on the afternoon before Thanksgiving. On the spur of the moment, the other sixth grade teacher and I decided to show an inspirational movie instead of teaching science and social studies. It ended right before school ended. Everybody was hugging and saying "Have a Happy Thanksgiving." In fact, the students were taking so long to leave and say good-bye that I finally went down to the second floor so they would clear out! One of the second grade teachers and I had a good laugh after she told me she couldn't get her students to go home, and I explained what I was doing on the second floor!