Double Down

Last week year two approached me about taking their classes for an extra lesson during the week. I was expecting it and probably should have gotten around to them before now, but, well, I don't have a good excuse. I just didn't. So I got out my timetable and their timetables, and suggested times, and they got back to me and suggested other times, and this has been the first week we've implemented it. My major problem was the fact that I didn't have too much wiggle room to accomodate them. This is my fault, because I'm choosing to think of having a biweekly KG lesson as a priority. If I knocked out KG on the weeks that I do doubles with Year one or year two, it would give me more flexibility, but they only get me twice a month, and trust me, if you're reading this, Stephanie, I'd rather lose a big chunk of planning time than get dirty looks from the KG1 teachers because they think they're being FURTHER marginalized. So far I've been able to swing it, and this has been the fullest day I've worked so far (seven classes and break duty on the playground). The others are fours or fives, and I can definitely live with that, and so far as I've heard back from them, I'll be able to slot the Year ones in a little more on my looser days.

Now, I've been calling them doubles, but they aren't true doubles, because they aren't back to back timeslots. This means that I lose a little more time with them than I would if I had true doubles, but other than that, it hasn't seemed to matter much. I figured out differently today. I had a class with 2C in the morning, and another right before lunch...and the kids were totally different the second time around!!! In the first class they were calmer and more controlled, and I feel like if they had back-to-back art, the atmosphere would have carried over. I could be wrong, and on the other hand, it could work opposite, as well - if the kids had been nuts in the first period, they might have had time to calm down before the second - but true double periods just seem like they'd be so much more productive, and I'm going to lobby to have my schedule set with an optional second art period written in next to the static one the next time I get the chance.

Mapping out the mosaics continues to go well, but I feel like I'm caked with glue, and have been all day, between year two's mosaics and KG2's flags.