Down the Hall in Room 177: Ms. A's Top Five List of Crazy Stunts to Capture Her Student's Attention in 2014

Third grade is one of the toughest years our students will have at HSA-DE as it is the first year our precious little ones are thrown into the world of state standardized testing. Ms. A throws one challenge after another at them all year long as she tries to help build their independence and confidence. To help lighten the load, she tries to build a strong "family" like community in the classroom and throw in a bit of humor, especially when the going gets rough. None of these things are ever planned...they are just spontaneous things that seem to come out of nowhere and represent the true personality of our crazy little classroom.

5) Giving students nicknames...not everyone has one yet, but by the end of the year, I am certain, everyone will! Sharnetta Farnetta, Jayda May and TaMya JONES are just starters... There are also Beezus, Grumpy Cat, Lady Bug, Olaf, Lady Toots-Her-Own-Horn, and Fiona.

4) BRING IT AROUND:Sometimes getting students to FINALLY arrive at a correct answer calls for a little celebration...

3) TAP DANCING: Because Teaching math in the afternoon (after TWO specials) felt a little bit like the Kid Snippets video below, I thought maybe I needed to be a bit more entertaining...so, I started to tap dance. Needless to say, the whole class was busting up laughing and I had their attention better than most days at that time of the afternoon...so, maybe I really DO need to keep tap dancing. (Since then, I have moved Math to the morning and things are going much better.)

2) HUMOR: Sometimes, we just take a moment to laugh with and at ourselves. We all do funny things and embarrassing things. One of the easiest and best ways to to deal with those situations is to find humor in them. We never do things to hurt each other but we do try to have a sense of humor and not take things so seriously. Sometimes, I will do STUDENT IMPERSONATIONS and they will try to guess who I am doing. Other times, it is playing jokes on students. For example, one time I had a student turn in an assignment that was all rolled up in a tight roll like a telescope. So, the next day, her classwork and bellwork assignments were all given to her folded in various origami shapes. Another time, I copied everything a student did. If she crossed her arms, I crossed mine. If she covered her face, I covered mine. It is a proven way to end a bad mood if your teacher acts like an 8 year old, too. They never seem to see that one coming. ;)

1) SINGING: This is probably my number one go to attention getter. you never know when it will hit or what song will come out of my mouth. Like I said earlier, I never plan it... it literally spills out of me.

It can be anything from answering a student's question of where to start...this results in my singing...