Boys will be boys

Tomorrow you might here a girl yelling TGIT across the Atlantic! Thank goodness it's Thursday!! This week was tough-mainly trial and error and lot's of pre-assessing. Sunday I had a few great lessons planned, tried them and realized it was way too much for the kids. I didn't take enough time to teach writing the date, writing their name, how to read directions etc. I'm also learning that I have to talk very slow and use visuals. So I have slowed down the pace and am taking time with each step of an activity. Modeling and guided practice x100!

And of course boys will be boys. Twenty-four in a room makes for a lot of noise. Today we worked on keeping our bottom in the chair! Of course lots of noise usually means lots of talking and I love how social they are! 

This is how I feel by the end of the day!

I'm hoping we will get used to our routines and procedures. My favorite is giving the American sign language letter for "B" to ask to use the bathroom and "W" for water. They are doing a great job at looking to see if the hall pass is available and asking silently! 

We have three rules: The Golden Rule ("Treat others the way you want to be treated"), "Only talk when you have been called on" and "Only get up when you have permission." It's very common to speak to the teacher by getting out of your seat and yelling Miss Miss! Unfortunately, when it's happening all day long with 24 boys. the teacher can get irritated hence the 2nd and 3rd rule : )

So I mentioned all of the planning time I have each week, which is wonderful! Here is what the boys are doing:
Every week they have five Arabic classes, two Islam classes and two Lifeskills classes. The Arabic of course is just like English Language Arts. Lifeskills is a great course-today they talked about why they are special which fits right in with my social curriculum! The teacher for Islam has a beautiful voice-I love to hear him teach the prayers and of course listening to my class sing in their sweet 7 year old voices is lovely! He is also an amazing storyteller....I find myself just sitting and listening for 10 minutes at a time, even though I don't know what he's saying!

Prayer request: Michael's looking for a job! 

We went on the yacht last weekend and swam in the Gulf! It was extremely salty and the current was so strong we resorted to hanging on a rope while the others jet-skied. 

I had great pictures of Michael and I swimming at sunset and I accidentally hit "Delete all"!! boo

Well I'm going to go enjoy a cup of green tea and look over my lesson plans for next week! If I haven't mentioned before it's common to drink tea and coffee after every meal. 

Next post you'll learn all about fills and KD and the few Arabic words!