Epic fail...

Wow, yesterday was awful.  My WBTing did not even help.  Dare I say...it may have caused MORE frustration.

It was Monday.  The second graders were physically in the classroom but mentally...I can't even venture to guess where their minds were.  Maybe in the old days I would have relished the eerie silence of the class on a Monday morning, but as a wibbeteer I could not take it! 

They did not respond to "Class".  They did not respond to the classroom leader's attempt at "Class, class."  They did not mirror.  They did not do hands and eyes.  They could barely muster up the energy to half-way attempt the classroom rules.  They did not call out page numbers.  They were NOT keeping their dear teach happy.  Dear teacher was extremely AGGRAVATED! 

Honestly, it didn't help that I was working on only 5 hours of sleep myself.  I've mentioned that it is a struggle to maintain the enthusiasm on my end when I'm tired and cranky.  The scoreboard was 0 happy  to 4 frownie.  (Yes, in anger I broke the +-3 rule)  What do you do when the scoreboard does not even rouse them from their catatonic state?! 

Looking back, I probably should have been a little more positive and sought to award a happy for a meager attempt at doing things the right way.  I should have stopped and patiently practiced with the class instead of preaching.  Yes I am ashamed to say, I reverted to preaching, "We are not at the beginning of the school year!  We have been in school for THIRTY-FIVE weeks!  There is NO EXCUSE for not following directions quickly.  You know EXACTLY what I expect.  You better start showing me that you are ready for 3rd grade! etc..."

Things were better today.  I think we all caught up a bit on our sleep.  Now to end things on a positive note, here are some successes for today:

• Today as students were teaching each other about erosion, I heard one say to his partner, "Hey, lets make a complete sentence!" as he proceded to begin using air punctuation. :-D Awesome!
• The students transitioned very well today from desks, to floor, to large group circle.
• They miraculously remembered what to do when I call out a page number.
• One student spontaneously used "class" and "mirror" when I called on her without any prompting, thus engaging the rest of the class without any effort on my part.  That makes me smile :-) 
• I spoke to a student about the fact that many classmates look to him and do what he is doing.  I encouraged him to make smart choices and be a good example in order to help our class do better as a whole.  I overheard him kindly telling a friend to "behave" today.  Wow!  The thought of guiding a class to self monitor and rely on leaders is amazing!