Alive and well

A wise colleague told me that if children are noisy, that means they are alive and well. I'm happy to report that my students are alive and well. Although I have a feeling the noise level may have something to do with the number of students in the classroom. To give you an idea, this was my class last year:

And this is my class this year:

Sometimes, the classroom feels a little like that tree looks: full and overflowing. But the students are doing very well, and I'm thoroughly enjoying this class. The middle of last week, one student asked me when we're going to start using the behavior chart. She hadn't realized it started on day one. :)

So maybe it's not fair of me to say that they're noisy. But it turns out that students make generalizations about teachers, too. I heard one say, "That's how teachers are." (Stopping a story just when it gets to the good part.)

They're also doing well academically. I've enjoyed reading some very creative sentences in language class. For example, on one worksheet the directions said to "Pretend you are the teacher. Write a command for your students."

"You all go to the principal's office for 24 hours while I go four-wheeling." 

(When I asked if they thought it would work if I tried that, they were too distracted by the very idea of me going four-wheeling.) 

Another time they had to write an exclamatory sentence, pretending a flock of wild ducks just landed in their backyard. 

"There's some ducks out back! And sadly one bit me." 

I'm looking forward to much more entertainment!