What a bunch of crabs!

Sigh, unfortunately, that's probably what someone walking into our classroom would've said about our class today.  We need a weekend.


The day started out fine.  Except my external harddrive decided it didn't want to be read by the computer, so I had to unplug it and plug it into my laptop (which still didn't read it) and then replug it back into my desktop computer.  That time the harddrive opened and I could access my files.  I don't want it to die!  I backed everything up on my laptop (and then put some important files on another flashdrive).  I'm hoping that maybe it's the cord and the harddrive itself is okay.  Another question for the IT guys... who aren't good at answering questions in a timely manner.  And another sigh.


Today was the first day I let my students pick which Daily 5 round they want to do: Read to Self, Read to Someone, Word Work, or Work on Writing.  Somehow, the brother sister pair ended up together for Read to Someone.  No one else would switch.  Once again, I decided they'd need to learn to get along sooner rather than later... so I forced them to read together.  And problems happened.  I spent a long time talking with them, helping them to get to a compromise (which wasn't really a very good compromise).  Then I gave them a carrot, "If you read nicely with each other for five minutes, you can separate and join other groups."  Well, they did it for a few minutes and then there was complaining.  So another minute together was added onto the time.  I felt bad because one of them was actually trying to get along and she was being punished when the other didn't cooperate. 


Then in the afternoon, a student decided she wanted to be in control of her group looking up the Minnesota state symbols.  And she wouldn't listen/do anything her group said.  So I had to try to talk her into cooperating.  Didn't happen so well.  Eventually they figured something out and got their homework done.  By that time, we had cut into recess time and didn't have a whole lot of time outside.


We played Eagle's Eggs in the slightly wet grass.  It had mini-thunderstormed right before recess, but the grass was dry enough we could go out.  And then there were accusations of cheating.  And the teams being unfair.  Oh how I hate making teams!  If I would've been thinking ahead, we could've used the group generator to make teams.  Next time.  Next time. 


After school, there was a staff meeting and a lecture on keeping safe from blood borne pathogens.  And by the time the meeting was over it's 4:45 and another late night at school getting things together.  I normally lesson plan for next week on Thursday nights, but I'm sorely tempted to say, "Eh, I'll do it tomorrow."


But let's not end on a bad note.  Today was the first day of Bookmobile!  I had some students check out a bunch of books and we got to see the new Bookmobile.  Fancy shmancy inside!  When I told one girl I didn't have a limit on how many books she could check out, she said, "Wow, 5th and 6th grade is the best class ever!"  She checked out five books and two movies.  The other good thing was at the end of the day.  I told my class it was my brother's 17th birthday today, so one of the 6th graders thought we should call him and sing to him.  So we did.  We left a message on his phone.  After our faculty meeting was over, I saw I had a missed call from him.  He must've gotten our message. :)