Fairburn celebrated College Awareness Month with some fun activities, including a door decorating contest. I admit, Room 17 took liberties with the meaning of "door," opting to decorate one entire facade of our bungalow. Many thanks to our head room mom, Sabra, for getting the pompoms from Party City! I got the cute and clever idea of using students' "selfies" from a first grade teacher on Pinterest.
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Our beloved Room 17 mascot, Eddie the Otter, is alive and well, and I never would have guessed how deeply he has endeared himself to my students. I thought of giving a brief update about our furry friend, because he has become such an integral part of our community. I first introduced Eddie as a cute little friend who could motivate my students towards good behavior. Eddie only stays with students who work quietly, follow the classroom rules, and are kind to others. If I forget to give Eddie to a student in the morning, I will undoubtedly be asked by someone in the class, "Who gets Eddie today?" Now into our 151st day of school, the children are still excited to receive Eddie as their desk buddy. Of course, Eddie dislikes unfocused behavior, disrespect, too much talking, and loud noise, so he will occasionally leave a student if he observes any of those things. I later expanded Eddie's role in our class to include writing in a fictitious journal about his daily experiences at school with us. Students reflected on his feelings in response to a variety of things that happen during the day. This is a great writing minilesson that teaches the diary format, and is a highly interactive activity in which I and the students literally share the pen when writing sentences, words, and adding punctuation. We end up editing a lot as well and helping each other with spelling. Here is sample we wrote from Eddie's point of view: January 17, 2014 What became fascinating for me was how the students began to exercise some empathy when they reflected on how Eddie might feel sad, happy, anxious, or excited about certain events. Things got really interesting one day, several months ago, when a student told me during class, "Ms. Long, so-and-so told me that Eddie hates me!" I promptly took Eddie away from the student who said these mean words. As a teacher, I try not to get upset when things don't go smoothly in my classroom (sometimes easier said than done!), and instead look for a way to turn it into a positive learning experience for me and my students. The next day, I told the class that Eddie was very unhappy that someone had put mean words into his mouth. "Eddie is in our class to help us, to be a kind friend, and to encourage us and make us feel comfortable here." I explained that Eddie would be going on a long vacation to the Monterey Bay, away from Room 17 (okay, I had actually tucked him away in a safe, secret place), and wouldn't be coming back for a couple of weeks. My students listened intently, and were aghast at this news. We proceeded to write a farewell "postcard" from Eddie's point of view, which went like this: February 6, 2014 One girl actually came to me later that day when school was dismissed to say, "Can you tell Eddie I miss him?"
The revelation then hit me: Eddie had become real to these children. We are almost near the end of the year, and Eddie has long since returned to us. The children know the rules well on how to care for Eddie if they want to be his guardian for the day. I see children cuddle with him while they read, prop him up on their desks to show him "listening" to a lesson, and make him wave good-bye to me at the end of the day. He helps the children remember kindness and compassion for others. I am indebted to our otter friend for all he has done for me and my students. Every so often when I notice the children need to get the "wiggles" out, we take a brain break. Ideal for transitions in between lessons, getting in a bit of physical activity during the day, building community, and just plain mental refreshment, brain breaks are something the class looks forward to. My students will even ask on me on occasion, "Can we have a brain break?" Each week, I try to introduce a new brain break for the class to try. So far we have enjoyed "Hot and Cold," "Coseeki," and "Hi, My Name is Joe," a rhythmic chant with some hilarious movement. The version we use goes like this: Hi, my name is Joe. I've got a wife and three kids, I work in a button factory. One day, my boss came to me and said, "Joe, are you busy?" I said, "No." He said, "Turn the button with your right hand." The chant repeats from the beginning, and subsequently adds the left hand, then the right foot, left foot, elbows, and finally the head. It really gets the heart pumping! Here is another wonderful, funny version of "Hi, My Name is Joe": Room 17 is also benefitting from our new school-wide exercise program, "Fairburn in Motion." We do this for the first fifteen minutes of our instructional day. The program originated at a nearby school and has gotten national recognition. Here's a clip of one of our favorite exercise routines, "Peanut Butter Jelly Time," done by students at another school: |
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