K. Jones- Noticing Blog Week 3: Welcome Back

Today was a very eventful day with it being the first day back in the classroom after a 7 day strike. I was greeted with hugs and lots of loud "Hi Ms. Jones" this morning. I was ecstatic to see my students again and to get them back on track. We had to go over some of the rules that had been set before the strike just to reiterate that things have not changed. The students were a little rowdy today, but that was to be expected. I was very excited to see my Mentor Teacher as well. He greeted me with a warm smile and it was like we never lost the momentum that we created during the initial first week of school. Today was like the "first day" of school all over again. There was in incident today during a whole group discussion Mr. Bui (my Mentor Teacher) was having with the class. The incident was the one student John (pseudonym for the actual student) made a big deal about another student Jake (pseudonym for the actual student) not having to pay attention and he did. Jake usually has behavioral issues in class. Mr. Bui and I discussed that as long as he is focused and not disturbing the class, it is ok that he not be on the rug with the rest of the class. Although, I did not fully agree with this, I do understand how Mr. Bui could focus his energy on 32 students instead of just one. John screamed that is was not fair that Jake got to work with the blocks that we were using for the math lesson today before everyone else did. When I talked to John about it after the mini lesson at the rug was over, he continued to say "But that wasn't fair!" From this, I understand that students want to be and should be treated equally. John was not just making a statement about fairness for himself, he was in essence making the statement for the entire class. He was saying that if one student gets to do something all students should be able to do it. This could eventually lead to a bigger problem if Jake is not confronted immediately when he is doing something that is not appropriate at a given time and not making good choices. I look forward to noticing more things about my students as learning how to manage my classroom so that all students feel that they are being treated equally.