Now, in a good mood

Today was a much better day. I think it helped that I wasn't just up at the front of the room leading a discussion all day, though I did do a bit of that, too. The kids... they're good kids, and they really are interested in the subject at hand. They just get all riled up and out of hand really quickly. Yesterday was also a perfect example of how long 6th graders can concentrate on one activity. We had been learning in class that the attention span of students is [age]+/- 2, and after 15 minutes of working on a reading and note-taking assignment (the 6th grade teachers are trying to teach reading strategies), their concentration just died. The transformation was quick and impressive, from silently working classroom to herds of students milling about, no matter how hard I tried to keep them in their seats. My host teacher found it hilarious that I would have preferred to deal with a colony of bees than those kids yesterday. Some days the kids just have the crazy in them, though, and no bee suit can keep the kid crazy in check.