Chuck E. Cheese

I find it pretty clever that Chuck puts a big E. for his middle initial instead of going with the obvious Chukie Cheese. It show's he comes from class. Last week I received a calendar request from my wife for Wednesday (Veterans Day). The subject line said "family day don't make any plans". I know better than to decline that invitation on my calendar. I may be 6'7" but when the 5'2" Italian says those words, I know to back off of my busy schedule and put in my time with the family.

Well for "family day" I had planned for us to go on a hike up to Morrow Mt. or possibly Cane Creek. As you know the weather didn't cooperate with our plans so we ended up at Chuck E. Cheese. What a way to spend a day off from an Elementary School Principal job, surrounded by 400 wild and crazed kids. We arrived around 12:00, the scene reminded me of our school each morning when we unload the buses and open the breakfast line. Organized chaos at it's best. The kids of course found all the bells whistles and must to be exciting. We found a table and gave Nick and Lily their tokens. Fifteen minutes later Nick was back and Lily had half of her tokens still in her little cup. You see Nick had found a game that was stimulating to him. He popped token after token after token into this game, he couldn't control his new addiction to this game. Ability to conserve, lost. Lily on the other hand was more curios than anything. She wandered and wondered what she wanted to do next. She tried a little of this and a little of that. Content on just a taste of each thing off the menu and not spending all of her tokens on one thing.


What does this have to do with school. Think of your classroom as Chuck E. Cheese for minute, specifically think of your literacy block. Chuck's engineers know how to set the place up. You provide a little of something for everyone. They even have a playground for those kids like Nick that run out of their tokens. Our classrooms are the same way. We have students that lose their ability to manage their time because they get so caught up in what they are reading or the project they are working on. In some cases things they shouldn't be doing right? These are the students that get caught up in the long chapter books they just can't put down. The kids that will write until we have to physically rip the pencil from their paws. We also have students that like a little bit of this and a little bit of that. For some that "little bit" we talk about needs to be a little bit longer. These our are student that love short stories or non-fiction. Neither is bad, one is not better than the other. We as teachers need to learn to mold and shape our students to have both habits of reading.

My point is balance. How are you finding the right balance for your students? Are you working to find the right books for your students to be in? Are you challenging your kids to try different activities to diversify themselves? Is your classroom library stimulating enough or organized enough that students can do the little bits and the big bits? Some of you are working very hard on the structure and consistency of your literacy block. I challenge you to continue to do this. I challenge you to know your students and make your literacy block like Chuck E. Cheese. Some thing for everyone!

I really like that "E."

Playfully Yours,

Mike