Jennifer Sonneberger

September 28th 2007

This is my fourth morning in Mrs. Mullins 3rd grade class. After reading some of the blogs, I guess I am lucky. She does not seem to have any of the major behavior problems I see in the other classes. My Son had her last year, and he rarely got in trouble, though in second grade (and now in 4th grade), he was in trouble all the time. There is a sense of respect in her classroom. She rewards the class as a whole. Based on their behavior as a class, they get happy and sad marble. When they have accumulated enough marbles, they get to have a picnic on the playground, as a class. These seems to work quite well. I also noticed that when she disciplines the students, she does it in the least disruptive way possible.
This morning, she had me go in the closet with two students, and administer the spelling test to them. One student R grilled me the entire time we were in the closet. He had played ball with my son and it was clear he looked up to my son, so he seemed to have respect for me. I have worked with the one student L, everytime I am in the class. She is really struggling to read, and she has already repeated a grade. I do not think she gets any help at home. She told me her parent as divorced, and she only sees her dad on holidays.
When I reentered the classroom, one child T was acting up. Mrs. Mullins immediatly picked up on the fact he had not eaten breakfast, and it was effecting his behavior. I wonder why this is a problem, when this school offers free breakfast to every student, regardless of income.
After the spelling test, it was time for school pictures. The kids were funny, all combing their hair, and practicing their smiles. They were excited to get their pictures taken.
Friday I will be doing a read-aloud with the students.