Exercises in Frustration

This past week was a long one. Too many long hours at work, not enough sleep and a migraine sandwiched in the middle. It was one of those weeks when the activities that usually run smoothly felt like they were covered in speed bumps. Everything seemed to take longer, the kids seemed to talk more, nothing seemed to get done quite the way I intended or envisioned.

This was especially true with two of the lessons we did. One was an art lesson on illusion that all of the students in Divisions 13, 14 and 15 did. The task was to draw 7 pumpkins so that they look like they are sitting in a v shape. Sounds easy enough, right?

We had the lesson together as one big group and then went off to our individual rooms to do the actual art. It quickly became apparent that this lesson would have turned out better (for my sanity!) if I had done it as a teacher directed step by step activity. The class had a lot of trouble remembering all of the instructions and, while the samples did not look difficult, the actual creating of the illusion was tricky for a lot of them. I felt very frazzled by the end of the activity. Lesson learned. Even with all the frustration I was pleased with the finished results; the class should be proud of them, too. It was not an easy activity! Here are some examples:

The second activity that felt like it was not going AT ALL as I had anticipated was a math activity that involved following step by step instructions. The whole group was having some major issues with talking on the day that we did this. It was the morning after I had been away due to my migraine (note to self: never, ever, ever try to do a teacher directed lesson the day after having an EOC teaching my class). The lesson I thought would take about 25 minutes took nearly an hour. Can you say frustration?!?! However, the final result are some pretty cute shape monsters. Check them out...

And some close ups...

 I am hoping for a calmer week next week - although I am really not sure that calm and Halloween are possible!!!! Regardless of how the week rolls out, I know that I will be more rested with all the sleeping I am getting in this weekend!