I Learn A Lot From Partying

So this is the time of year when I break out the cookies, popcorn, juice, and games - it's speech party time!! This week is my last official "therapy" week with my students, which has been spent making it fun for them. This is because I have noticed my students "flaking out" and fastidiously keeping track of exactly how much school year we have left. It's been quite fun and interesting to see how kids react to the speech parties I throw. When I break out the goodies, there is a mixture of reactions - most of the girls are shy at first and will request the smallest amount of goodies. The boys go for the gusto and aren't afraid to ask for seconds and thirds. Some of my students who are "lower income" are very pleasantly surprised at what I have brought for them and they express their gratitude. One boy today said "we are so lucky that you are our speech teacher!". My "higher income" students complain that I don't have exactly what they want and ask if there is something different. When I say "nope, what you see is what you get, and be happy that I have provided this", they grudgingly accept my offer of juice and popcorn. When it comes to the games, some of my students are very competitive about winning and will go to any extreme to achieve this, even going so far as to cheat. When I ask if it's more important to win the game or to have fun playing, they say "win". They need to be coached to be gracious to their playmates - and need modeling to say "good game". Others will quietly play by the rules and will "win some and lose some" and seem to accept this and enjoy themselves. I've noticed a mixture of boys and girls with the "competitive" streak, and I have just as many girls play "cutthroat" as boys. Overall, no matter what their background, my older students (fifth and sixth graders) are less excited about the speech parties than my younger crowd (kindergarten through fourth grade), which makes me a little bit sad because I think we lose our excitement over simple things at too young of an age. All of my students agree on one thing, though - that they would rather have the speech party than be in class. Some things, like wanting to have fun even when there's work to be done, are universal.