School- first week

The first week is done and it went pretty well. The kids are great. They are all Arabic as a first language and they are all Muslim. There are still two I have not met- they're not back from vacation yet. Hopefully that doesn't throw off the dynamics of the class. Almost all of them speak, read and understand English at the same level as an American 2nd grader. They are super cute and we're going to have a great year. They come from all over- Kuwait, Syria, Lebonon, Jordon, Spain.... I think I got all the places they said. I will not post picture of them or give specifics on here due to privacy. Sorry. 

One of the things we've been working on over the past couple of days is the classroom agreement. Basically the rules. I had the students work in table groups- there are three- and each group made a list of what they think the rules for the class should be. I then wrote them on poster paper, cut them up and put them around the classroom. Then we spent time combining rules that were similar- for example, keep your hands to yourself and do not push people. After we combined all the rules that could be combined the students were given 3 post-it notes and could vote on the three they thought were the most important. We ended up with 4 rules that had significantly more votes than the others so those 4 will be our class agreement. I've re-written with the verbiage we agreed on and put it on poster paper starting with: In Ms. Robyn's class we agree to.... then the rules/agreements. I might see if the Arabic teacher will write them in Arabic as well. Tomorrow the students will sign the agreements and I may have them give a thumbprint as well. 

What rule got the most votes? Don't share your food. Seriously. We have food allergies and I've told the students they can't share because it's not safe, but seriously, more people could have voted for take care of your things.... I added "Be safe" to the start of that agreement so I'm ok with it. It's not a total democracy in here.... :)