The start of school. Where the rubber meets the road. Where all our “neat” little plans play out with real children and other human beings, and not just in the perfect classroom we create in our head.

First, some truly excellent news that I got just before the start of school. My Donor’s Choose grant for video cameras (digital and webcam) was fully funded. This came about because the Claire Giannini fund gave a donation to fulfill all of the outstanding teacher requests on Donors Choose from California. You can read a bit more here. Needless to say, I was ecstatic, and this was a nice note to start the school year.

The first week overall went well, but it was a bumpy start. Most of it was within my control, and centered around my mis-placed assumptions about how I “needed” to set things up. Fortunately, I’m not stubborn, and adjusted things by day two.  Still, I feel like I got a shaky start with some of the classes.

Most of the kids seem to be returning students. Unlike in their regular classes, I am a “known” factor, and so are the rules and procedures. This means I usually have some students who don’t see the point of going through the rules again. I don’t let that stop me, because they may think they remember, but it’s a long 2+ months away.

The other thing is that I do change and adjust some of my procedures, and this is where I need to roll them out. This could be a tricky business since most of the kids already know me, but I’m arrogant enough, and just proceed with the attitude that that was the past, and this is how it is going to be going forward. I’ve often adjusted my classroom procedures, etc. mid-year, and done so successfully, so that likely helps.

The school is adding some new tools in the form of culturally relevant participation models. Most of these involve call and response, and some other ways that give verbal kids a nice productive outlet for that need for expression. It’s layered over whatever we as teachers already brought to our practice, and the uneven implementation of past programs. At this point, it’s looking rather…eclectic. I’m hoping that eventually it will be eclectic in an authentic way, like Hawaiian cuisine. I fear it may just become a bland mish-mash of eclectic, like a mall food court (Sbarro anyone?). At this point, sometimes it’s just weird, like when my friend’s roommate added hot dogs and bologna to his ramen soup to give it “meat”. I imagine that this will work itself out over time.

In addition to my rules, some of the procedures I am and will be teaching are included in this slidedeck:

I also started teaching students about appropriate behavior online. With the first and second graders, it is mostly around being nice generally. I used Kevin Henkes books, Chrysanthemum, and Lily’s Purple Plastic Purse to get the job done. For the third and up crowd, it was a mix of BrainPop, BrainPopJr, and some You Tube Videos on Cybersafety. The thing I have to be patient about is that there are a handful of students who no matter how I “prepare” the class, will laugh inappropriately. This is largely a condition of where they are in their social emotional development, and since some have IEPs, I’m going to our intrepid Special Ed teacher for some insights. I did have a good response to one student looking at the “Talent Show PSA” that went something like this:

Me: Hmm, would that be funny if it happened to you?
Kid: No, I’d beat them up!
Me: Then should you laugh at them?
Kid: But it’s funny!
Me: Look, are the kids in the video audience laughing? [I then went and froze it on the face of one of the kids in the video audience] is he laughing? He looks scared and horrified. You need to look around you for clues about this. Are others laughing? If you’re the only one, it might not be the right response.

As an autistic parent (hmm, the parent of an autistic?) I’ve learned something in those social skills exercises that’s proved useful!