Another long day today. I was visiting my family and my dad who is sick in the hospital this past weekend so I didn't have time for lesson planning really. I have most of it done.

I'm going to be out one day this week for some inservice type stuff so I have to have a substitute that day. I'm trying to decide what would be the easiest assignments for both the sub and myself. I'm not looking forward to being out a day. I feel like it's just going to put me behind. I need to get this training though. It's pretty key for some stuff I need to teach.

Today I had the kids divide up into three groups and I assigned each group an article out of their Weekly Reader. The assignment was to read the article and then present the info to the class as if it's an evening news broadcast. I gave them ideas they could use and stuff but several groups ended up just reading through the article word for word. One kid even had the magazine directly in front of her face where you couldn't see her at all as she read. I told them I've never turned on the news and seen the anchorman reading articles to the camera. A couple of kids and one group really did do more what I asked for and did a good job of reporting and not reading. Some of them were kind of funny too.

My kid who's been out for a while with a bunch of unreturned assignments showed back up today...miracle of miracles. Another miracle was that he had a bunch of the assignments in his folder and they were actually completed. That's pretty incredible.

My little space cadet knocked my socks off in class today. He was actually paying attention in science and he raised his hands to answer or ask questions!! I was seriously dumbfounded and caught off guard by that. If you realized how hard it is to get him to pay attention for even 30 seconds you would be to. I don't know what caused it but I sure hope he keeps it up. He's a funny, likable kid and I know he's got some brains. I'd love to see him excel.

It seems like some things are kind of coming together. Relationships are warming up, kids who have really not worked much are working better in class... Today they actually had their second day in a row of only two names or less on the board all day! That means that if they get one more day in a row they get their first reward of a class period outside. Five days in a row gets them an extra recess. I don't think they can keep it up that long for sure...at least not at this point. I'll be surprised (but happy) if they make it through tomorrow with only two names...especially since we had homework last night...several kids are bound to not do it and that's automatic name on the board. We're also instituting a new school-wide rewards system tomorrow. That might help them.

I'm know I'm usually pretty cynical and whatnot but I really love teaching and I love my kids.