Playground Promises

This past week all of 3rd grade was MAP testing. At first I was a little worried about taking 19 active 3rd graders into a computer lab to be silent and still in front of a screen for at least an hour. So we spent MUCH time talking about expectations, procedures...and I even made a little promise!

A few of my students had continually asked me to go down the slide on the playground. I promised the kids that if they did their very best on the MAP test and followed all directions during that time, that I would go down the slide with them at recess.

Needless to say, they did great...and at 10:45, they were adament that I go down the slide.

Well, I did. I must say, it was fun...and the kids were shocked. They kept saying they had NEVER seen a teacher go down the slide, haha! It pretty much rocked their brains for the rest of the afternoon.

When we got back in from recess, and they were supposed to be getting water in our room- they started writing sweet messages on my board. After one friend did it, everyyyyybody else had to, and while it did take some time to erase, it made the rest of my afternoon too!

I had to post this because it was a lesson I learned as a teacher that I want to be able to read and remember one day. After one simple promise and gesture recieved such a warm and an enthusiastic response, what else could I do as their teacher to make each day that much more special? Just a thought...