The Old New World…
Monday Morning Message ~ 5-16-2011
Our district has just adopted a new Language Arts series,
and it will require lots of room to house and store.
So it began…
the cleaning of the shelves.
I have had a set of encyclopedias on one set of shelves for over 25 years.
I honestly cannot remember the last time we used them.
Last Tuesday I piled them high on a table,
wondering what should be done with them.
“Mrs. Brachbill, can we have them?”
Reply: “May we have them…”
And after investigation/permission,
the “Great Raffle” began.
Now here comes the amazing part.
I told my students that as I pulled their names,
and they didn’t want one,
just to say, “No, thank you,” and I would continue on.
Looking up, I saw 25 students with their eyes closed and fingers crossed.
And the excitement when they got a 2-for-1 (a.k.a. “The Q-R Volume”) was amazing!
At the end of the day, I asked them to please take them home.
(We are near the end of the year, and are trying to clean out, right?)
And, indeed, they did take them home, but returned the next day, carrying them with little slips of paper marking places they wanted to investigate.
They took them outside to read during recess.
They were reading them under their desks when they should have been following along in their Social Studies book.
They carried them almost reverently;
not in their book-bags.
So on this Monday morning, if you are in need of space, and you have one of these old sets taking up valuable room on a shelf, make a memory, and give a book.
classroom management reflections tips