WRITE. Every day in March write a slice of life story on your own blog.
SHARE. Link your post in the comments on each daily call for a slice of life stories TWT.
GIVE. Comment on at least three other slice of life stories.
When I taught at Heritage, our homeroom was called Excel. I'm not sure about the origin of that, but nevertheless, it's Excel. I *love* Excel. Like, my most favorite part of teaching in middle school is homeroom. For two reasons:
1. The kids get to do 20 minutes of silent reading during Excel, and
2. We hang out, get to know one another, and essentially become like a little family in Excel.
Some of my favorite things to do with my 7th and 8th grade Excel kids was at the end of the week when we would sit in a circle and debrief the week. We would do Highs and Lows (best and worst parts of their week) and also give appreciations to one another. I think that spending this time together was part of the reason that the kids really got bonded. I always talked about how we were a family. You know, because we're always together, because we mostly get along and have good times together, but then, we also get in fights and on one another's nerves, too.
I bring all this up because today I was with my old team and our former principal. We were just catching up over lunch (minus one coteacher) and got to talking about looping. Jon was saying how it's so cool, coming back to eight grade, because you can get started working right away since all the kids already knew you.
And then they reminded me about how we decided to keep our Excels. See here's the thing: my Excel would make me so happy, and then would also drive me insane (isn't that kinda like family, too?) :-) Anyways, there was a point during our seventh grade year on our last loop, probably right around spring break, where I told the teachers on my team, "Under no circumstances - no matter what I say later on - should you let me keep my Excel the same. They are ridiculous and the Excel lists need to be switched up, so we will switch them all around. Understand?" Then all nodded in agreement, probably smiling at one another with eyes that were saying, "Yeah right."
Fast forward till the end of seventh grade and we were making class lists. We had Language Arts, Math, Science, and Social Studies done. It was time to talk about Excels, and you know, there I was feeling all nostalgic about my Excel, remembering exchanging Warm Fuzzies on Valentine's Day, helping a few of the ladies solve their problems with their friends, and listening to their appreciations to one another over the course of the year. So, you guessed it, I just couldn't give them up and they had to return to me.
And my whole team was just fine with that.
A few pics of the kiddos...
The day they did a read aloud all on their own - my heart melted!
Here they are, all dressed up for their 8th grade graduation pics.
And again, doing some pose, which the name of slips my mind at the moment...
Well there you have a real life slice from years ago - any particular groups of yours that made this kind of impression?
Happy Tuesday!
So great that your kids have this in school "family!" I'd love to institute something like this where I teach. You made me laugh when you said you always think about splitting them up at this time of year-- we are three days away from spring break and I can't wait for a few days away from kids. And at the same time, I am crazy about them and know I will miss them next week. I love these pictures! The kids at your school look a lot like the kids I teach.
ReplyDelete