Intro to the T Classroom

I redesigned my classroom a bit to eliminate the sunshine sleepies that have been plaguing the students almost every morning since we began our endeavor. The fact that it took me almost two full years to think of this is sad, and probably a commentary on my own ingenuity, or lack thereof, but I won't cover my deficiencies in this particular post.

The white table there is my desk. I didn't have one previously, but used space on the kids' desks for my lesson book. Again, I can't believe it just now occurred to me to use our extra card table for this purpose. I can claim nothing but intellectual weakness or possibly laziness.

I also can't explain why Mim is wearing a gymnastic suit. It must have been just the inspiration of the moment. Zaya informs me that it's because she can "run better" with it on. I find that debatable, but I will be the bigger man (so to speak) and refrain from debating.

Here is a little bit of our P.E. class. Each of those yellow straws has an exercise of some type on it, such as "15 leg lifts" or "Run for 5 minutes." We each draw three straws, put on some peppy music (Doctor Who Soundtracks are popular), and do our exercises, one straw at a time, putting them each in the Done cup when they're completed. I'd like to tell you that we have faithfully used this idea over the last year, but that wouldn't exactly be true. OK, it wouldn't even be remotely true.

We have used it, though, quite a few times, and it's been a lot of fun. I need to add new exercises so that we have a little more selection, but otherwise it has worked just as I hoped it would. With a little persistence and the formation of better habits, it could even be called "a good idea". Thank you, Pinterest, for almost validating all the time I spend looking at you.