I was doing *so* good.
Not anxious for the end of the year at all.
Things had been going well. We were all happy.
Until two weeks ago.
Chaos. Shambles. Anarchy. Pandemonium.
Classroom life became unbearable for myself and my EA (Excellent Awesome Education Assistant). We were both ready to change careers.
90% of our day was taken up with reminding students how to behave properly, how to follow rules they had been following all year, stopping incidents before they started, deal with behaviours etc. It was no way to have a functioning classroom.
And then I remembered a suggestion from the previous years teacher.
No Talking Day.
And it was amazing.
Students committed fully to the challenge and we accomplished more in one day than we had during the entire week. Students participated properly, entered classroom discussions via mini-whiteboard, asked for help from the teacher instead of a friend and then getting distracted for 10 minutes. They worked quietly on their assignments, put extra effort into their art. No one was distracted and one got caught wrestling in the coat room. It was marvelous.
Two days later our classroom is calmer, more focused, on task, and working hard.
It was an end-of-the-year miracle.
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