Teachers should always use safety precautions when walking around the room...

Alright, I really don't have anything wonderful to share today except the very powerful words of wisdom within this post title. I guess I should back up a little so you can fully understand the comicality of this comment.

So, as I'm introducing Read to Self to my class we worked together to create an I-Chart. This year it was so much easier for two simple reasons:

1. They are not in kindergarten anymore. Let's face it, five year olds are egocentric to say the least.

2. Most of my students participated in Daily 5 last year so they had some background knowledge of the subject.

Moving on- the kids helped me create the I-chart. We had a sloppy copy at school and revised a little bit each day. (It is ugly with a capital U, but at least they got a little writer's craft lesson hidden in there.) For instance, last year we wrote, "Students need bubble space." Apparently that is soooo last year, and we are NOT babies anymore. This phrase has morphed into "Find a spot with plenty thinking room." Yeah, they are pretty proud of that. (Plenty was a superb word choice if you ask me.)

After a couple of days practicing and building our stamina, I opened a can worms when I asked the students to help with the teacher side of the I-chart. I felt so good about this, I mean c'mon I was already sitting with kids, listening to reading, gearing up for guided reading. I felt like I was on top of it. Let's just say they put me in my place.

It started out really well. The first thing they came up with was, "Teachers read with the students." Great, no problem. (By the way, notice the preposition WITH, not the teacher reads to the students. My class rocks!)

Then, another student said, "And they need to listen to us when we read." Check! I'm totally blowing this out of the water.

That's when one of my students blurted out, "Teachers should always use safety precautions when walking around the room." Say what?! Really- he wants me to put this on the I-chart? I'm thinking to myself, what in the world? So I said, "Of course we will be safe when we are walking around the room." He responded with, "No, Mrs. Scott, I really think it's important and you should put it on the chart." That's when I knew he meant business...

"Mrs. Scott, you wear really big shoes. That's not very safe. It's dangerous. You need to be very careful when you are walking around the room."

Point taken. I guess my high heels can be a little intimidating. Maybe I've stumbled/slid a time or two. Honestly, I didn't think they took that much notice. I mean, I haven't taken a kid out- only injured myself. Obviously this is very concerning to some of them. I wrote it on the chart and looked around to see several students silently nodding. I was naive when I thought I could convince them this was not necessary for the chart. Here we are, three school days later and it's stuck.

So this is our new and improved (by that I mean typed and pretty) Read to Self I-Chart.

By the way, if you are interested in super cute I-charts I know you can find some on Teachers Pay Teachers here. She has really cute clip art and fancy stuff!