1st day solo

Today is my first day of student teaching where I am completely in charge of everything. Mrs. Carey is on holiday all week, so students will no longer be looking to her for authorization and will prefer me over the unfamiliar sub. Knowing this psychological adjustment is actually going to play in my favor I went about my normal routine with sub in tow.
First on the day's agenda is the fifth grade class. They are beginning the Doodle 4 Google logo contest, so I presented the information to the class. Some of the fifth graders were a little too talkative in the back of the rug, though most were great. Desmond, Braedon and AJ were crammed into an area in the very back of the rug and were more interested in talking than listening. Desmond appeared to cause a lot of ruckus, aided by AJ who was the ring leader when it came to talking (which continued into studio time); DeAndre was his usual sassy self, but he at least fulfilled the expectations; Shanella and Charlease had a difficult time coming up with ideas (doesn't help they do a lot of talking to one another). Masonda did an overall good job. He seems to work better when he is stationed by himself and that worked really well for him. Tomorrow I am planning on reading over all the 5th grade Google ideas to offer feedback on post-its.
My second graders were having their first day of collaging. They are working on their Emotional Face Collages. The last two days in class they did printing of a face with an emotion and now they are continuing that by collaging neck, shoulder, ears and hair onto a piece of paper with one of the printed faces. Jesse was having a hard time. He got angry and poutty towards the end and didn't want to work. I allowed him to come back during his lunch recess to work some more and he did a lot better.
The first graders were drawing their houses and family in preparation to the pop-up house they will create during their next visit. Christian was very very VERY needy today. From the time on the rug to the time in studio. It took me 5 minutes to move him to the detention chair. I congratulated him for losing the bonus recess for his class, to which he went on for about 5 minutes talking to himself about how he doesn't care about recess. I walked away, as it wasn't necessary to really devote any more attention to his behavior. He completed his house, and when he said he finished his people, I told him (just as I explained on the rug) that stick people were not expectable and that he needed to add more detail to them. By the time I came around again, he was sitting on the floor by the classroom door pouting. Ms. Smith (the school's disciplinarian) came in about this point, and just talked to him saying stuff like "how do you know if you don't even try" to him saying that he can't draw people. At the end of class when everyone was in line, one of the latino girls said that Christian hit her. I don't know what the intentions were or how hard or if it was just a girl overreacting, but Christian was being a total brat today. I'm planning on going to talk to his teach in the morning and taking it from there.
The third graders were to be completing their still life project. Romeceo and Ellesse (+ her buddy that she play fights with) were having issues with one another, as they liked to talk loud enough for the other table to hear a comment about the opposite person. Romeceo said something that got the girls attention and ended up getting one of the girls to tell me about how her mom no longer hangs out with her friend (the mom's friend) because she was selling her body and she didn't like... (the cash that was around? I don't know). Anyway, strangeness. Ellesse volunteered to wash brushes again. She ended up washing the little bowls that held the white paint. I had cleaned out the drying rack at the beginning of the day, and Ellesse neatly stacked the little bowls in there like a pro. Must be one of her chores at home. :)