September 28, Day 2

Work-Skills/ R suspended for the day. Class was good. No recollection of what we did. I think the lesson I described for yesterday is actually what we did on Friday ... so really I have no idea what we did Thursday, period 1. I need to start taking notes at the end of every class. By evening it's all gone. I know we went to the greenhouse though. We went at the end of class and they hated it, they like going at the beginning of class. We spotted the squirrel in the atrium digging up our bulbs!

Pre-Work/ Half the class was absent. We played Labyrinth. D cheats, R quit, K had no clue. Over all a success thoguh despite the sounds of it.

Work-Skills/ Draw-Squad lesson 1. They wanted "free-time" because it's Friday. Ha!. No such thing. Some of these kids were in the system last year, before I arrived, and have bad habits from getting such free periods. We did the alien house to start, then the birthday cake which got a plate and then became multi-tiered. I asked for a soda can so we did another tall cylinder (like the candle in the lesson would have been) and J even came up to the board to draw his soda can. The key to engaging these students seems to be to return to the last level at which they experienced academic success. In their case, it's grade 2. That's why drawing and planning gets them in. Reading to them works as well. It's because we are back in grade two for them. We were almost out of time and managed to draw the present. Drawing two copies of the same thing works well because the slower ones get to see if twice, or with pauses, and the faster ones can work on the next step. We then went with L to the atrium at 14h00 to install the bird feeder. They all accepted the responsibility of maintaining it through the whole year. Maybe an aquarium would be good? They like the idea of doing greenhouse, and bird feeder, so maybe a fish would be good ... maybe. The bird feeder looks good. Some of the maintenance and security guys said they would bring out some of their old and buried bird stuff to donate. The pole, food, and feeder cost me $100. A bit steep but worth it. The aquarium might be too rich for me however.