Second day in sixth grade...Like Gloria Gaynor, "I Will Survive." Why is it that any work that requires sixth grade students to focus for more than 10 minutes simply exhausts them? And why is it that two male students sitting on a small couch can create hysteria in other male students? What is it about the phrase "love seat" that causes them to giggle so??? Oh my goodness, sixth grade boys and girls, the hormones are all aflutter and yet, there is still such juvenile humor...
It's quite hard to make lessons exciting when everything comes out of a textbook. In this classroom there is a Smartboard for use, but not for me - I don't have access to the password. I do remember, though, that in the third grade class down the street, the student had the password that would allow me to access that Board - 3rd grade is mature enough to know the password but 6th grade is not? There is only so much reading you can do when you don't have the technology to back it up - at least, the technology that the students are now used to. If it isn't whizzing by on the screen and there are no lights and flashy displays, there is not much to engage them other than my scintillating voice. There is no more taking out the globe and turning it around and running your fingers over the hills and valleys to find all of the geographical landmarks. They'd rather see it spinning on the screen. It is a little difficult to describe the Continental Divide or the Mississippi River when you're trying to hold a 10lb. textbook open while pointing out the landmarks on the map on page 57.
Time to now take my map and head down the street to the third grade, where perhaps this week I'll be back on the Smartboard.
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