More Water

I’m only posting one picture for Thursday and Friday, because the world has looked the same for days and days. That’s good, because in a lot of Colorado, the water is getting deeper and deeper. And running faster and faster. I have a lousy cold and I NEVER get sick.

Thursday, September 12. Got a great lesson planned for Reading classes on setting. I found a couple pages from, “What I Saw and How I Lied” that have great description of driving into a Florida beach town on the off-season. Read 180 is again feeling like a battle, but today we start using the Refocus process. If a students behavior is stopping them or others from learning or the teacher from teaching; they get one warning and then are sent to another teacher’s classroom to reflect in writing on their behavior, the reason they were exhibiting the behavior, and how they can keep this from happening again. I truly hope this works.

Friday, September 13. Still raining – but today my team brings breakfast for the staff and that is a great way to start a Friday. Using the Refocus process in Read 180 was less successful that I hoped, but did lead to some progress. After I sent T and R each to the Refocus room and had no change in their behavior when they came back – I walked them to the office. Then I brought the class back together in their assigned seats, enforced silence, and had the students write an answer to “What can we do about this situation right now?” Those who chose not to write had to sit silently. I got some thoughtful answers and a calm and quiet class. We did the next rotation with some modifications. Then discussed the difference when the class was quiet and working vs trying to work with noise and wandering and trash basketball. T and R and the assistant principal came back for the final discussion. I think this will work!.