Star of Fame

Okay, Here's My Deal...

Every so often, teachers in my district have to be formally evaluated by an adminstrator. Yesterday was one for me. I never tell my students beforehand that I am going to be evaluated because I don't want them to think they need to be any different than usual. And, I never really get too flustered about being evaluated either when planned before like this was or out of the blue with no notice--I figure if I have to worry about it or plan something extravagant to wow them, then I am not doing my job in the first place.

Anyway, I had been planning on dividing the kids into groups to do a test review and have the kids help each other through the problems and then help if I needed to. Teachers usually pick the groups specifically or have the kids number off or draw numbers. I thought I would do somethinga little different. I bought some Jolly Ranchers and divided them into groups according to the number of kids I have in class. Then I had the kids draw them and divide them into the flavors: grape, green apple, watermelon, blue raspberry and cherry. As they were drawing their candies, one girl said, "I like this!" I asked why and she said, "I've never had a teacher divide me into flavors before!!" I thought that was just perfect for my principal to hear. Sort of like a gold star or something. Plus, even if he had not been there, it was something that was nice for me to hear--good feedback and encouragement.