Actions speak louder than words…

We started the morning with a little wake up it’s a school day “morning math” quiz. May not seem like the best way to get a day started but really nothing gets your brain working like a little math! We sent them away to technology and planned for the day. When they returned we went over their quizzes and helped them iron out a few problems. Leading this really gave me a chance to see from the kids who would be honest about their confusion and who would act like everyone else in the class and just play along faking the answer. I found it interesting to see who, of the 4 kids who got the answer right, was willing to really slow down and help their fellows and who simply let the others take charge…. Who was a “Passenger” and who was “Crew” really stood out to me. We transitioned into what has to be one of the most challenging Crew initiatives we’ve ever done… Now when I explain it you won’t think so but I promise you, it will be difficult when you try it in a group larger than 10. The first task was to “blind” count to 10. Easy enough… 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 right? Wrong. Everyone had to close his or her eyes and simply hope that someone else hadn’t said the same number. The rules were if they opened their eyes or if 2 people said the same number we started over. The other thing was there was NO discussion time. They simply had to go round after round with a simple “start over” The frustrations became really clear and those who were willing to step up and help the group really impressed me. There were at least 3 students who had the answer of collaboration but because of the way they act in class, and the way their fellow classmates viewed them no one would listen. Scott and I were totally intrigued by it because the answers were there! When they finally accomplished this task we transitioned into the second half… The instructions were do as I do, and all you have to do is clap. Then Scott said, “One, two, three” CLAP “GO”… And all the kids clapped. He repeated “One, two, three,” CLAP “GO” and the same thing happened… everyone started talking at the same time, utter insanity broke free and one person had the answer. We tried again, “1,2,3” CLAP “GO” The kids struggled again, fighting through how to work this difficult task. Not really remembering what exactly the instructions were they continued to clap at different times and being confused. After about 20 minutes they finally got it. I’ve never felt prouder of my kids… They all got it; they worked together to complete a really hard task. It was so awesome to see how proud of each other they were as well. They high fived each other and there were tons of “YES’s” that echoed around the room. Afterwards we talked through and wrote about some prompts that I had written earlier in the day. One of them was (well something along the lines of) “what do you think the old saying ‘actions speak louder than words’ means in the context of our Crew and how can you apply it?” I was fascinated with their reactions and with one kid in particular who said, “Sorry isn’t enough, you have to really show you’re sorry.” Amazing, a 5th grader can recognize that sometimes you have to work to make sorry mean something. It really made me realize that there are so many wonderful ideas in the world. There just needs to be someone out there willing and caring enough to listen to them. Even just 5 minutes with some of my kids will make you realize the future is much brighter than many people will make it seem. The transition into descriptive writing was easy and we prompted the kids to talk a place that they could really describe. All of the senses would be present in this memory so that we, as readers, could get there. I of course, wrote about Aix and Scott wrote about Red Rocks… The kids were great listening to each other and helping each other with descriptive words and phrases. After lunch we broke into independent reading and Scott led a small reading group and it was so cool to watch him. He gave them all the tools to make connections in the material and to feel confident in their own right. I’m looking forward to starting my own reading group on Friday! Hopefully I can get them as excited as he did! He definitely used great modeling or actions to show me how to lead a small group... Check in friday to see how I do!