more smiles

29 students is a lot. One on one they are all wonderful. A group of ten of them would be a novel experience and I can only imagine what I could tailor teach to them. 29 very chatty tweens for 6 hours a day, five days a week, is something that I think you have to experience to understand. I've had some struggles, and part of it comes from me not being super strict on their chatty behavior on day one, because I am someone who can let things like that slide. It's gotten to the point that it's a problem, and now I have to fix it, which having never had to do this before, is something I am struggling with a bit. Lots of advice from the seasoned veterans, and a strengthened backbone (because I am really a softie at heart), lead to me being very clear and very firm about expectations today. And what's better, it worked. I don't know if it will tomorrow, I can hope, I can keep my backbone stiff.

I am taking on a lot, and I want to do some things this fall that I may regret and never do again, but I won't know until I try, and if they work out it will be wonderful. Do I dare to let my students create 29 gingerbread houses in class? Yes, I think I dare. So long as I have some great parent volunteers. It may be crazy, but it may be wonderful. Today I realized that yesterday was not a fluke. I can do this job, and I can do it well.

(example of potential houses)