Funnily enough though, he inspired another child so sit by and observe with us as well. E sat down next to him without a word and silently watched the progress of the room. She didn't ask what we were doing, didn't try to interrupt, just took it into her head to join us.
A lot of things in a our classroom work like that. Sometimes it's good, like with the puzzle maps this morning. A took out the entire map of Asia, and well....it was a little bit too much for him. So I recruited a couple of girls who were being silly nearby, trying to engage them in something more productive. While helping put the puzzle back together one began asking the names of the pieces. Next thing I knew she had her own puzzle out and we had gone over about a dozen state names in the United States map.
But sometimes that influence of the environment isn't so good. E loves nothing more than a good game of chase. She's been getting better, keeping it mostly to the playground, but there's one younger boy in our classroom that just gets sucked in to following her. They egg each other on until there's a game of tag going on if a teacher doesn't catch them in time. E wasn't quite running when I put up an arm to stop her (in fact I'd like to say she was doing a pretty legitimate speed walk!) but the high pitched voices were rising.
So back to N. He sat by me and I sent him out to get dressed 10 minutes early, along with another go-homer who has trouble concentrating when the entire group is in the coat room. When I brought the rest of the children in a few minutes later they were both dressed and eager to help me put out name tags for lunch. Sometimes it just takes a little change of environment.
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