Surprise Visitor

Today during reading, we had a surprise visitor.  Well, I knew he was coming, so it wasn't really a surprise.  There was a church counsel meeting earlier this week, and I'm guessing the people at the meeting were asking Mr. E, the principal, how much time he's taking off to do administration duties (he's supposed to take off a half day each week, but that never happens).  So finally today, he took the morning off so he could observe the teachers teaching in their classrooms.  Yes, that included me. 

In reading today, we were doing an activity with books by David Wiesner (an author/illustrator who likes to leave out the words in his stories).  The 6th graders were practicing their summarizing skills by reading a book with only a few words, and then retelling the story to the rest of the class.  Of course we did an example together in class before I set them loose.  We read June 29th, 1999 by David Wiesner.  I had warned my students ahead of time that Mr. E would be visiting, but he sneaked in so quietly, half the kids didn't notice he was there!  Well, we were tucked away in the reading corner, and he just sat at one of the back tables, so that might be why they didn't notice him. 

I was kind of worried that he wouldn't like what we were doing.  In my class, our whole group instruction is usually spent working on a reading comprehension skill by reading a picture book together as a class with me modeling what to do.  We got new reading textbooks this year, but they are used during small group instruction.  I guess I'm just worried someone is going to have a problem with my using these "kids books" with 6th graders when they're capable of doing more complicated stuff. 

Well, Mr. E had only good things to say about the lesson he observed.  He was really interested in the book we were reading and the whole setup of my reading instruction.  (He took notes, but he didn't show them to me). 

Tomorrow is our first class field trip!  All the 6th graders were super excited today and kept asking me questions about our trip.  At the volleyball game after school, one of the girls said, "Miss Heintz, it's almost tomorrow!"  I also overheard a conversation between one of my 6th grade boys and an 8th grader,
"I'm so pumped for tomorrow!"
"Why?"
"We're going on a field trip!"
"Yeah? So? We get to watch a movie and have pizza." (since I'm not around, the 7th and 8th graders don't have geography or science tomorrow and Mr. E is letting them watch a movie and have pizza)
"Well I'd rather go on a field trip over watching a movie."  I was so proud!  Of course, he's probably just excited because we're not going to have any homework tomorrow and he'll get to run around outside with his best friend all day.