2 days down, 178 to go...

If that sounds dreary, it isn't my intention. We had a very good day today. The weather seemed a tiny bit cooler and the A/C worked almost all day. The kids tried harder to behave once they saw that acting out is pretty futile in my class.

Since I was worried that we would have another very hot afternoon, I decided to work on math in the morning. We had a good lesson on place value and they used their math journals for notes for the first time. By the end of the lesson they were doing very well.

Recess and lunchtime play were indoors again because of the air quality. The nearest, biggest fire is only about 25% contained. We may be doing this indoor play thing for up to 2 weeks. Yikes. I hope we don't get cabin fever!

I also found out that this is my year for a formal lesson observation. Drag. It's not a big deal except that I don't want to! I'm also grade level rep for the first time in my career. It is something I've always managed to avoid since I've been the newby to different grades. But, alas, this is my turn. It's no biggie and it gets me out of signing up for a long-term committee.

This afternoon I finally took some individual pictures of the kids--all 33 of them. And yes, the room feels very full of little bodies! They really showed more effort today. I like this group. And here they are. Introducing Room 30's 4th grade class of 2009-2010...