Stress Turned Into Refreshed Minds

The middle school in which my elementary feeds into has fifth graders take a 6th grade placement test. This determines which students are placed in various levels/classes when entering 6th grade. It takes 60 minutes and is done on the computer. While the students were emerged into the test, the test kicks the students out. My students were very upset. We tried to log back in but it would not allow anyone to get back in. After our failing attempts to log in, we went back to our classroom. The kids faces were frowns and their body language was filled with tense muscles. Recognizing this I told them on the count of 3 we were all going to scream as loud as we could. We did so and it felt great! I suggested we turn this experience into a positive experience, they came up with the following: we were able to see the questions we will have to do again, at least we know itwasn't as bad as we thought it would be, we are able to think about if the answers we entered are right and at least we were able to get out of the hot computer lab. What was once a stressed group of students now persevered into reflective thinkers! What more can you ask for?

Reflection

Today while teaching my students about how passionate you should be about your opinions I realized how opinionated they really are. As I was modeling two opinion papers, with two points of view, on animal experimentation and if TV is bad for your health and academics it became clear to me that my 5th graders began to come "alive" with their thoughts. One student who was pro-animal experimentation stated, "Well, I believe that instead of experimenting for human needs why can't they experiment for animal needs like how to help cure some of their diseases." Meanwhile another student, who was anti-animal experimentation, began with, "We are supposed to be looking out for mankind and all living creatures, how does this align with morals and values." I was taken back! The student who was pro-animal experimentation is a student who does not speak up in class and hardly volunteers. The other student is one with extreme ADHD who is not medicated and has difficulty expressing his feelings. Wow! Words cannot express I was so proud and touched by these students that it made it clearer to me why I value teaching so much!