It's all in the numbers

I'm convinced that having fewer students really makes a big difference in the classroom. I'm down to 26 students and the difference between 31 earlier in the year, and 27-28 more recently is noticeable. For one, there are fewer bodies to keep track of. For another, I now know all my students, I know their voices and can figure out who yelled out the obscenity when my back was turned and can figure out if they're playing with each other or about to fight, and can tell when they're lying or telling the truth (for the most part) so things are getting better.

For one, I'm able to do all the "student centered creative" lessons that I've read about in my classes. Today, after a field trip (yes another one, more on that later) I had my students write down what they learned on a post it note and then come up one by one and tell the class what they wrote and stick it on a poster. It sounds like a fairly simple idea, but when I tried similar things earlier in the year, it was disasterous. The pedagogical post-its became "kick me" signs, paper ball missles, or got used to pass notes instead of getting used for academics. When students got up to post their note, others would heckle, or yell out unrelated requests about needing to go to the bathroom or asking if there was an assembly on Friday. Basically, I would try the lesson, but it would end after only one or two students posted their notes and I would have to collect the notes and post them myself. Not really a "student-centered" lesson. But today, we had success. Several students came up to post a note, we were only interupted 6 times during the lesson, and we ended up with a poster reflecting some learning. Only 19 students, but a successful day.

In a lot of ways, the year is getting easier. One of the reasons, I think, apart from the mad bonding that's been occuring between me and my students, is that we've been going on field trips. Lots and lots of field trips. Last week we went on two--Tuesday to Akeelah and Wednesday to the Field Museum. This week we had one--to a health sciences musuem. Next week, there is no school Monday, and we have a trip to the Shedd Aquarium on Tuesday and a trip to the Lincoln Park Zoo and a picnic on that Friday. No wonder things feel easier--we're rarely in school!

At first I was really critical of this plan--I've never heard of people going on so many field trips in such a short span of time--but I've seen that its been really good for our students. They haven't had recess all year and so they've been hungry for opportunities for social interaction and the chance to play in a time slot longer than our 20 minute lunch break. They're now a lot calmer during class because they've had, and know they will have, the chance to have fun with each other and relax.

Its also been really good for teaching them about the world. We just finished a unit on the Holocaust--and before the unit only 1 student had heard of Hitler and almost no one knew what it meant to be Jewish. But last Wedneday, on the bus to the Field Musuem, my students called out excitedly, "Ms. D we see Jews!" Being a little startled, I asked them what they meant, and they said they saw a bus with a star of David. Not wanting to squelch their excitement, but seeing this as a good "teachable moment" to talk about race, ethnicity, and difference, I explained that probably people wouldn't like them to call that out. They kind of said, "oh, okay" but a few minutes later got a better lesson in why they should be more sensitive, when a few students in a class of white students from another school were staring wide-eyed at my students. "Ms. D, why are they staring?" I explained that just like my students didn't see many white people or Jewish people on a daily basis, these students probably didn't see too many African American students on a daily basis. So, they're learning about race and identity and how to talk about it--perhaps in baby steps, but still moving forward.

I feel like I could write forever about all this! (But I won't). The highlight from today--we went to the Health Center and none of my parent chaperones showed up so my dad and my sister came at the last minute to chaperone the trip. My students loved getting to meet their teacher's "daddy and sister" and the boys especially loved being in the "men's group" and getting to do all the activities boys especially like, like crawling through pitch black mazes and learning about the science of burping (though the girls all enjoyed these same things too=). So the day ended up well--a great trip and a successful lesson at the end of it.