Occupational Hazards/Benefits...

Odd things that a fifth grade teacher has to/gets to do....

Tell a student to get "that thing out of your nose!"
Hold an eleven foot Burmese Python while my class squirms and giggles in awe.

Just to name a few. (c;

I realized today, that, partially due to schedule demands, and partially due to negligence on my part, I have not, as of yet, spent as much team-building time with my class as I have in the past two years. I believe that it's not indeed too late, and that it WILL be accomplished in the near future. In fact, I'm not doing another thing academically with my class (for the most part) until we come to a better understanding of what our class room can be like.

Fortunately, I have a theme already in place for my class that lends itself quite well to this concept. I have ships, boats, maps, and captains all over my room. (For those of you that don't know, I also allow my students to call me, "O Captain, My Captain" if they need my attention.) So, during our class meeting, we're going to be working on realizing that on this "jouney of discovery", we are in fact a crew...and every single person in the room--regardless of anything else, by virtue of the fact that they are IN this room--is a valued and needed member of our crew. I'm excited because, although it may sound cheesy to anyone that doesn't work with fifth graders, we're going to actually grow closer as a class and many of the behavioral problems will be eliminated due to the realization that, by God, every single person is important.

Ok...gotta get on that...
thanks for reading...
Tommy