Reasons I love coming to school

• We start our day sitting in a circle saying "good morning." It brings a smile to my face.

• During the morning circle student share something about themselves.  It's fun when a pet comes to a visit, or we get to see colorful journals or old toy cars, or see a video made at home, or hear stories about after school games or time spent with a family. With each sharing I get to know the students a bit better.

• The students have learned the routines, they know what to do during word study, snack and read aloud, mental math time, during reading and writing time, and when they have independent study. I have moments when everyone is working and no one needs my help and I can actually just sit for a moment and observe the students working and my heart swells with joy.

• I love, love, love to hear comments like "I want to keep writing" or "Can I do more mental math?" or "When is it time to read?' or "Can we share our work." It's music to my ears.

• It's never boring in grade 3. Sometimes the classroom looks like a big mess, papers on tables, pencils and pens rolling around, I-Pads and books in various places, and a busy buzz pouncing around the room. This chaos and noise are the signs of learning and creating. Like this week, the students had on their desks: big poster papers for making "Family Stories" mind-maps, folders with drafts for personal narratives, rulers and pencils for drawing shapes in math,  papers and pencils for drawing pictures for the digital stories, I-Pads for writing, blogging, mental math and digital stories. I can't wait to share their creations with you next week.

• Our classroom is rich with compliments and support. Quite often, without any prompts from me, the students offer help or say positive comments to each other.  On Fridays we finish the day with sitting in a circle, everyone picks a classmates name and shares what positive things they noticed about the student whose name they picked.  They don't forget me either. "You read poetically," is a comment I will treasure from this week.

• The best part is to show the students the pre-assessments and the final assessments and see their faces glow in pride when they notice the growth.  Sometimes it's small steps, sometimes big, but it is always the learning and practice they have done that makes the difference. 

• Occasionally I have moments when I am a tad bit disappointed that the work didn't get done as fast as I planned or the result of the work was not as grand as I envisioned. Then I take a deep breath and remind myself that I am together with third graders and it takes time to grow. Instead of looking for what isn't there yet, I celebrate what the students know and can do already. Even small growth deserves a celebration. 

• We finish our day, sitting in a circle clapping and saying, " One, two, three, yay! We had a great day!" It brings a smile to my face.