This post is based on experiences from October 15th, 2012-November 30th, 2012. I post the date because hopefully I will be a good girl and look back on these posts and compare my experiences in the first half of the year vs. the last half of the school year. I am still just plugging away, trying to survive Jr. High again and everything it has to offer--wonderful aromas, crowded hallways, awkward teenagers, you get the idea.
Classroom management is still a work in progress, but I haven't lost faith...yet! My 7th graders are still proving harder to handle than my 8th graders. My new, newest plan? Well as of Monday (tomorrow) a few new "rules" will be set in place. My principal says that there is a difference between "rules" and "policies." He says that is it a "rule" if there is a consequence for non-compliance. He says that it is a "policy" if there are no consequences for non-compliance. My first rule is to crack down on tardies. Three or more tardies will affect their citizenship grade. My principal said that he used a "nut" chart to track each student. I think I will call it the "utn" chart or the "tun" chart or the "ntu" chart, ANYTHING but NUT chart! Can you imagine me proudly displaying my newest and latest behavior molding tool in a classroom full of teenage boys and introducing it as the "nut" chart? I think I will spare myself some grief and change the name even if it doesn't make sense. My second diabolical plan is to "reward" disruptive students with "opportunities" to teach parts of the lesson themselves. I will send them home with a topic and a textbook and if they don't show up the next day with their five minute lesson plan prepared, I will dock their citizenship grade and I will make them teach what I have planned on the spot. I want them to experience what it is like to try to teach 30+ students with someone who can't keep their yapper shut. I have a feeling I am going to have a few 7th graders teaching some great stuff in the next few weeks. I like this idea of punishment. It will cause some mild to major discomfort for them, BUT they will be learning in so many lessons at once by doing it. When I get another moment to breathe, I will provide a progress report.
As far as curriculum goes, I am just hoping and praying that somebody learns something in my class by the end of the year. It is a very difficult job to not only plan out lesson plans, but to make sure that the lesson plans tie into the core curriculum and that you are teaching everything that needs to be taught. Not only do the plans have to tie to core curriculum, they must also be engaging, provoke deep, critical thinking, allow time for assessment, plan which type of assessment will be used, be flexible on time, and have modifications for different learners, learners who are gifted and learners with disabilities. It is a HUGE responsibility to be in charge of teaching kids everything they need to know in 7th grade English and 8th grade English. My biggest nightmare is that my kids will bomb the Language Arts part of the test on the end of SATs. The only way I can make myself feel better about that is promising myself that I will do my best to teach to the curriculum right now, but then a couple weeks before the test, I will take time and review with students material that is similar to what will be on their SATs. They say that 75% of your kids will do better on tests if they first know how to read and comprehend the questions that are being asked. So not only will we focus on content, but we are going to focus on reading and understanding test questions and we are going to practice writing like crazy!
I think I have built a pretty good rapport with my students. At least nobody has checked out of any of my classes yet besides those who have moved. I am going to use that as a barometer of sorts and choose to believe that means that I must be alright in their eyes. You never know because kids never tell you these things. You know, just like when we were all teenagers and expected our parents to know we loved and appreciated them and everything they did for us without our having to verbalize it. I'm not looking to be their friend, I just want them to be able to trust me and see me as a role model for good. I want to be somebody they can learn from, somebody who can help them to see the potential they have inside themselves to become someone they never thought they could. I've always wanted to help people my entire life for my job. I think I picked a good place to start and I hope I can be worthy to earn the title of "teacher" one of these days. Sometimes I think people do not realize how important teachers really are. They are molding and shaping youth for almost two decades of a youth's life. That is a LONG time to be in the school system and I know I want only teachers who realize the importance of their calling to be molding and shaping my kids. I have a lot of great people to learn from and so I think I will spend a lot more time this year taking in everything I can and applying what I can remember! I will post a pic of my classroom soon. I just got my Smart Board installed on Friday and I'm so excited to learn how to use it. I think it will be a great tool for learning. It is so much more engaging and fun for students to participate in class discussion. I know I've got some homework to do on that because I have no idea how to use it yet. I also decorated a bit for Christmas, nothing more than a few strands of tinsel and a little Christmas tree, but the kids love it. It is surprising how much they are still like little kids:)
Sunday, December 2, 2012
Monday, October 15, 2012
September 24th-October 12th
You can probably tell by the dates of my posts how stressed out and preoccupied I've been with teaching. I NEVER stop thinking about it. In fact, I've had several dreams, many of those nightmares about teaching. My worst nightmare so far? I showed up to class with not a thing prepared for all three of my 45 min. classes. I'm not kidding when I tell you that would truly be a nightmare to have 35+ 7th and 8th graders stuck in your class for 45 minutes bored and with nothing to do. When they get bored for even 5 minutes, I feel like a zookeeper trying to keep the peace among a pack of sugar riddled hyenas. Blast those suckers and cotton candy they sell at lunch!
The last three weeks have flown by. We are nearing the end of the first quarter in a couple of weeks! Yes! I made it! I survived the 1st quarter! The best news is that I am now prepared at least a month out and I am really excited about next quarter because I am teaching a Holocaust unit for both the 7th and 8th graders and we will be reading a couple of books, watching a movie, and having a Holocaust survivor come and speak to my classes. I think and hope and pray that everything goes as planned!
Classroom management is still a struggle, but I am doing by darndest to be consistent with my classroom rules and for the most part my students are great. There's just a few who make it miserable for everyone else, but I have contacted a few parents and that has seemed to help. I also think I finally found a seating arrangement that will work AND I bought myself a really loud silver bell to ring to get their attention. Using the mic around my neck also helps a lot because I never raise my voice, but my voice is always louder than their voices are and it works well to keep them quiet AND it saves my voice! My next major purchase for classroom management will be a Yacker Tracker. It's a really cool unit that looks like a stop light. You set it when the kids are doing group work or whatever and when the light turns yellow, that means they are getting close to being too loud and when they are too loud, the light blinks red and a little alarm goes off. I saw Mrs. Irvine use one and it was very effective in managing noise while she worked with students one-on-one. Her rule: If the light goes off three times, you've got homework tonight. I think I like that rule. I have GOT to find me some BORING, TEDIOUS, REPETITIVE, and downright LOATHSOME worksheets to hand out. I don't want to punish them with writing because I want them to learn to love writing and I don't want them to consider it a punishment and therefore defeat my purpose of trying to get my students excited about writing.
Speaking of writing, I went to an AWESOME writing conference a couple of Fridays ago. It was AMAZING! I learned about how to teach argumentative writing, how to get kids excited about words, and how much of a responsibility I have as a teacher to be a role model for students so that they are excited about reading AND writing. We also listened to three authors, one of them the author of Goose Girl, Shannon Hale. I haven't read her books, but I will definitely put them on the list. She is such a down-to-earth person and she gave me hope that even someone like me can get the stories out of my head and into an actual book. She is a happily married mother of four and is incredibly humble about her success. One of her books is actually being made into a movie, so super cool! Her first book Goose Girl was rejected like a hundred and something times before someone finally gave her a chance. She's inspired me to get busy on finishing the stories that I've started. I like telling stories. I always have. I also like a good story. I spent most of my high school career with my nose buried in a book. My mom would nag me every weekend to go out and do something, maybe get into a little trouble (but not too much!). Most of the time I preferred spending my time at Hogwarts, learning legal terms from John Grisham, or traveling across the plains with the pioneers in The Work and the Glory. I am a sucker for books and I really don't prefer a particular genre as long as it's a good story. It's always been a goal of mine to write a book and after going to that conference, I feel like I can do it. Maybe I've found my calling in life? Teaching and writing. That's what I want to do, although I will still pursue fashion design as a hobby. I still can't quite let that go and since I am kind of artsy-fartsy, it's a good outlet for me. I can honestly say that even with all the challenges of teaching, I still haven't had a day yet where I dread going to work. My biggest goal as a teacher is to influence at least one student to change their life for the better and hopefully they learn something from me too!
The last three weeks have flown by. We are nearing the end of the first quarter in a couple of weeks! Yes! I made it! I survived the 1st quarter! The best news is that I am now prepared at least a month out and I am really excited about next quarter because I am teaching a Holocaust unit for both the 7th and 8th graders and we will be reading a couple of books, watching a movie, and having a Holocaust survivor come and speak to my classes. I think and hope and pray that everything goes as planned!
Classroom management is still a struggle, but I am doing by darndest to be consistent with my classroom rules and for the most part my students are great. There's just a few who make it miserable for everyone else, but I have contacted a few parents and that has seemed to help. I also think I finally found a seating arrangement that will work AND I bought myself a really loud silver bell to ring to get their attention. Using the mic around my neck also helps a lot because I never raise my voice, but my voice is always louder than their voices are and it works well to keep them quiet AND it saves my voice! My next major purchase for classroom management will be a Yacker Tracker. It's a really cool unit that looks like a stop light. You set it when the kids are doing group work or whatever and when the light turns yellow, that means they are getting close to being too loud and when they are too loud, the light blinks red and a little alarm goes off. I saw Mrs. Irvine use one and it was very effective in managing noise while she worked with students one-on-one. Her rule: If the light goes off three times, you've got homework tonight. I think I like that rule. I have GOT to find me some BORING, TEDIOUS, REPETITIVE, and downright LOATHSOME worksheets to hand out. I don't want to punish them with writing because I want them to learn to love writing and I don't want them to consider it a punishment and therefore defeat my purpose of trying to get my students excited about writing.
Speaking of writing, I went to an AWESOME writing conference a couple of Fridays ago. It was AMAZING! I learned about how to teach argumentative writing, how to get kids excited about words, and how much of a responsibility I have as a teacher to be a role model for students so that they are excited about reading AND writing. We also listened to three authors, one of them the author of Goose Girl, Shannon Hale. I haven't read her books, but I will definitely put them on the list. She is such a down-to-earth person and she gave me hope that even someone like me can get the stories out of my head and into an actual book. She is a happily married mother of four and is incredibly humble about her success. One of her books is actually being made into a movie, so super cool! Her first book Goose Girl was rejected like a hundred and something times before someone finally gave her a chance. She's inspired me to get busy on finishing the stories that I've started. I like telling stories. I always have. I also like a good story. I spent most of my high school career with my nose buried in a book. My mom would nag me every weekend to go out and do something, maybe get into a little trouble (but not too much!). Most of the time I preferred spending my time at Hogwarts, learning legal terms from John Grisham, or traveling across the plains with the pioneers in The Work and the Glory. I am a sucker for books and I really don't prefer a particular genre as long as it's a good story. It's always been a goal of mine to write a book and after going to that conference, I feel like I can do it. Maybe I've found my calling in life? Teaching and writing. That's what I want to do, although I will still pursue fashion design as a hobby. I still can't quite let that go and since I am kind of artsy-fartsy, it's a good outlet for me. I can honestly say that even with all the challenges of teaching, I still haven't had a day yet where I dread going to work. My biggest goal as a teacher is to influence at least one student to change their life for the better and hopefully they learn something from me too!
Sunday, September 23, 2012
Days 17-21: September 17th-21st
This week I decided I needed more help with classroom management, so I visited Mrs. Irvine's class this week, another English teacher down the hall. I talked to my dad on the phone for about an hour and determined that I don't know if I am managing my classroom well because I haven't any other experience or classroom to compare it too and my dad agreed with me that it would be a good idea to visit some of the other teachers' classrooms to see how they do classroom management. Well, Mrs. Irvine did not disappoint! She is very strict with her students, but she is fair and most importantly, her students know that she cares about them. She is very consistent in keeping her classroom rules. If someone talked without raising their hand, she would say, "That's not how we talk in my classroom," and then she would ignore them until they did raise their hand. A few good things I want to try in my classroom:
1. She interviews every single one of her students about how they feel like they are doing in class. What they do or don't like about English. How they feel about reading. What can she do to make the class better. Etc. The interviews only lasted a minute or two, but I believe every student left the interview feeling that not only did they have a say in how the class was run, but that their teacher truly cared about them. I am doing to do this in my classroom before the end of the quarter. I have already gotten the 3x5 cards and boxes for each class.
2. She puts her kids in tribes. They stay in these same tribes for the whole year. They make a tribe flag, they help earn points for each other, and they compete against the other tribes in their class. Mrs. Irvine says that tribes are a great way to build good classroom communities. She says that I really need to get the book. She says that she uses it as her classroom bible and it has so many ideas for reaching learners of all intelligences.
3. She has a noise monitoring machine. It looks like a stoplight. It turns yellow if the noise level starts to get too loud and if it goes over the limit she set, then the light turns red and an alarm goes off. Before she put the students in their tribes to work, she set the machine and told them that if it goes off three times, that they would have homework. It went off once. It was really effective for helping the kids keep their voices down and to stay focused while Mrs. Irvine conducted interviews.
4. She has certain jobs in the classroom that kids can apply for. They have to submit a resume just like they would a job interview. She says that it gets pretty competitive. The kids who do score the jobs can earn citizenship points and money to put towards their grades. If a particular student who has a job doesn't need the money or points, then they can give it to someone in their class who does need it. I really like this idea, but I'm afraid that if I try to implement this too this year, that that will be too much. I really want to focus on the tribes and the interviews.
Mrs. Irvine is an excellent teacher. She is super positive in her classroom management, engages the students with her teaching, and she reaches out to all of her kids. I'm so glad I stopped by. Next week I am going to try to visit two more classrooms. That was such a helpful experience!
This week I also got put in charge of the school mascot, Brutus. We had tryouts for Brutus last week and four boys and two girls will be our mascot for this year. I am in charge of scheduling the kids for their turn to be Brutus and for getting a procedure down of where the heck we are supposed to put Brutus after the games are over. Those poor kids are champs! Not only is Brutus super hot, but he is super smelly inside too. I didn't smell him myself, but I took the kids' word for it, especially after the boys were spraying Fabreeze all over him. Brutus is a Spartan warrior by the way. I'm still not sure if I bit off more than I can chew with this, but it's too late to turn back now, so I'll make the most of it!
1. She interviews every single one of her students about how they feel like they are doing in class. What they do or don't like about English. How they feel about reading. What can she do to make the class better. Etc. The interviews only lasted a minute or two, but I believe every student left the interview feeling that not only did they have a say in how the class was run, but that their teacher truly cared about them. I am doing to do this in my classroom before the end of the quarter. I have already gotten the 3x5 cards and boxes for each class.
2. She puts her kids in tribes. They stay in these same tribes for the whole year. They make a tribe flag, they help earn points for each other, and they compete against the other tribes in their class. Mrs. Irvine says that tribes are a great way to build good classroom communities. She says that I really need to get the book. She says that she uses it as her classroom bible and it has so many ideas for reaching learners of all intelligences.
3. She has a noise monitoring machine. It looks like a stoplight. It turns yellow if the noise level starts to get too loud and if it goes over the limit she set, then the light turns red and an alarm goes off. Before she put the students in their tribes to work, she set the machine and told them that if it goes off three times, that they would have homework. It went off once. It was really effective for helping the kids keep their voices down and to stay focused while Mrs. Irvine conducted interviews.
4. She has certain jobs in the classroom that kids can apply for. They have to submit a resume just like they would a job interview. She says that it gets pretty competitive. The kids who do score the jobs can earn citizenship points and money to put towards their grades. If a particular student who has a job doesn't need the money or points, then they can give it to someone in their class who does need it. I really like this idea, but I'm afraid that if I try to implement this too this year, that that will be too much. I really want to focus on the tribes and the interviews.
Mrs. Irvine is an excellent teacher. She is super positive in her classroom management, engages the students with her teaching, and she reaches out to all of her kids. I'm so glad I stopped by. Next week I am going to try to visit two more classrooms. That was such a helpful experience!
This week I also got put in charge of the school mascot, Brutus. We had tryouts for Brutus last week and four boys and two girls will be our mascot for this year. I am in charge of scheduling the kids for their turn to be Brutus and for getting a procedure down of where the heck we are supposed to put Brutus after the games are over. Those poor kids are champs! Not only is Brutus super hot, but he is super smelly inside too. I didn't smell him myself, but I took the kids' word for it, especially after the boys were spraying Fabreeze all over him. Brutus is a Spartan warrior by the way. I'm still not sure if I bit off more than I can chew with this, but it's too late to turn back now, so I'll make the most of it!
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Days 12-16: September 10th-14th
This week was a little rough. We worked on the skill of retelling stories this week. The 7th graders read "Duffy's Jacket" and the 8th graders read "The Wise Old Woman" (the punctuation is probably wrong right here, but I am just giving myself an A for effort today). I read the stories to both grades in one sitting and then they had to retell the stories in their own words. You would not believe the groans I got when I told them it had to be one WHOLE page long, single spaced, NO SKIPPING SPACES, no writing big, etc. One thing I am learning with these kids: You have to spell EVERYTHING out for them because there are always at least five kids in the class who are going to ask every obvious question in the book about how an assignment is to be done. They also had to read their retelling to a partner and then they graded each other's retelling using a rubric. What I learned: a lot of kids don't know how to summarize the main points of a plot. A lot of them did not get the assignment done in one class period because they were trying to retell the ENTIRE story. Next time I will have to give them an example.
Midway through the week the 7th graders started "Rikki Tikki Tavi" and the 8th graders started "Flowers for Algernon." I printed out a packet with several activities in it for the 8th graders to do as we read the story. The 7th graders are just listening to the story right now. Both 7th and 8th graders did complete the vocabulary definitions for the words from the stories along with the word webs. I will be giving both grades a test on the 23rd on both of those stories and vocabulary will be part of that. I guess we will see how well the word webs helped students remember their vocab.
We also started DOLs in addition to their journal entries at the beginning of class. I decided to keep doing both because I figured if they learn from making corrections to a sentence, that it might encourage a better understanding of grammar and sentence structure in their own writing, which they do right after their DOL. This week we are focusing on learning what nouns, verbs, adverbs, pronouns, and adjectives are and pointing them out in the sentences. I use my handy dandy popsicle sticks with their names on them to call on students to name corrections that need to be and to name parts of the sentence. The sticks are great because everyone has to be on their toes because nobody know who will be chosen next.
Classroom management is getting better. The point system seems to be working, but there is still much room for improvement. My dad says I should focus on finding positive ways to encourage good student behavior in the classroom. I pray I can find some way positive to do that because giving them extra homework for too much talking is looking more attractive each day.
One memorable experience. "A" (one of my 7th graders) walked into my class after school one day and announced that he had just found out that he has a secret admirer in my class. His comment caught me off guard for a moment as I never am sure what "A" is going to tell me. Then I had mixed emotions. I felt a little angry because "A" is a student who struggles with obesity and I was suspicious about who gave him this information and for what reason. I don't like bullying one bit and if this kid was telling "A" this to tease him or have a laugh at his expense, I WILL FIND OUT about it and that kid WILL be punished. "A" went on to tell me that he never considered looks, but that he cared about what was on the inside and that if there was a girl that could get past "this (and he motioned to his body)," then he was excited to find out who she is. Then he added, "Although, looks are DEFINITELY a plus." I hope for his sake that the kid that told him this was telling the truth.
I was bullied in the 8th grade. It was the WORST year of my school career by far. There was a group of "popular" girls who in my 8th grade mind, I wanted to emulate in every way and they knew it. Most days when I came to school, I knew that they would be there waiting for me by my locker to comment on how bad my hair looked or how my clothes were cute, but that I had an ugly body and chicken legs. They would find me in the hallways during school and make petty comments about me to their friends, just loud enough for me to hear too. I would get comments like: You wore your hair the same today? How original. Or: "You must LOVE that ugly green tank top because you wear it all the time." My favorite thing they did to me? I had a crush on a boy and in a small school like the one I went to, it seemed everyone knew it too. That same boy also happened to be "going out" with one of the popular girls. Me and this boy grew up on the same street playing together. We were childhood friends and we were in the same grade. One day in class, he gave me a note. I was so nervous and blushing and excited all at the same time. I thought that note meant that he liked me too. Then I opened the note and started reading. It went something like, "Michelle, I think you are really cute and I want to go out with you...." followed by more flattering comments. Then I got to the last paragraph and read the all caps word, "NOT!" which was followed by an explanation that he would never go out with someone as skinny and ugly as me when he had a "hot" girlfriend like (I won't mention her name, as if either of them would see this anyway). I felt my face get warm with embarrassment and I felt hot tears start rolling down my cheeks. I was completely humiliated and crushed. I heard snickering and through my tears I looked up to see two of the girls from that "popular" group laughing at me. I stood up in the middle of class (something I had never dared do before), grabbed my things, and ran out the door with the crumpled note in my hand. I later found out that the boy's girlfriend and a few others from that group had told him what to write, so he wrote it in his hand writing and then one of the girls from that group delivered it to me before class started. That incident and many others that year lead to thoughts of suicide at the age of 14. When you are young, you think friends are everything and I felt like nobody liked me at school and my self image was completely ripped apart thanks to those girls. I know what bullying looks like and I know with all my heart what it feels like and I made a promise to myself that when I got hired to teach that I would do everything I could to make sure that it doesn't happen to my students. Kids can be so so mean and I try to make it a point to talk about being careful how we treat people. I don't just want to help my students improve their test scores, I want to help them become better people.
Midway through the week the 7th graders started "Rikki Tikki Tavi" and the 8th graders started "Flowers for Algernon." I printed out a packet with several activities in it for the 8th graders to do as we read the story. The 7th graders are just listening to the story right now. Both 7th and 8th graders did complete the vocabulary definitions for the words from the stories along with the word webs. I will be giving both grades a test on the 23rd on both of those stories and vocabulary will be part of that. I guess we will see how well the word webs helped students remember their vocab.
We also started DOLs in addition to their journal entries at the beginning of class. I decided to keep doing both because I figured if they learn from making corrections to a sentence, that it might encourage a better understanding of grammar and sentence structure in their own writing, which they do right after their DOL. This week we are focusing on learning what nouns, verbs, adverbs, pronouns, and adjectives are and pointing them out in the sentences. I use my handy dandy popsicle sticks with their names on them to call on students to name corrections that need to be and to name parts of the sentence. The sticks are great because everyone has to be on their toes because nobody know who will be chosen next.
Classroom management is getting better. The point system seems to be working, but there is still much room for improvement. My dad says I should focus on finding positive ways to encourage good student behavior in the classroom. I pray I can find some way positive to do that because giving them extra homework for too much talking is looking more attractive each day.
One memorable experience. "A" (one of my 7th graders) walked into my class after school one day and announced that he had just found out that he has a secret admirer in my class. His comment caught me off guard for a moment as I never am sure what "A" is going to tell me. Then I had mixed emotions. I felt a little angry because "A" is a student who struggles with obesity and I was suspicious about who gave him this information and for what reason. I don't like bullying one bit and if this kid was telling "A" this to tease him or have a laugh at his expense, I WILL FIND OUT about it and that kid WILL be punished. "A" went on to tell me that he never considered looks, but that he cared about what was on the inside and that if there was a girl that could get past "this (and he motioned to his body)," then he was excited to find out who she is. Then he added, "Although, looks are DEFINITELY a plus." I hope for his sake that the kid that told him this was telling the truth.
I was bullied in the 8th grade. It was the WORST year of my school career by far. There was a group of "popular" girls who in my 8th grade mind, I wanted to emulate in every way and they knew it. Most days when I came to school, I knew that they would be there waiting for me by my locker to comment on how bad my hair looked or how my clothes were cute, but that I had an ugly body and chicken legs. They would find me in the hallways during school and make petty comments about me to their friends, just loud enough for me to hear too. I would get comments like: You wore your hair the same today? How original. Or: "You must LOVE that ugly green tank top because you wear it all the time." My favorite thing they did to me? I had a crush on a boy and in a small school like the one I went to, it seemed everyone knew it too. That same boy also happened to be "going out" with one of the popular girls. Me and this boy grew up on the same street playing together. We were childhood friends and we were in the same grade. One day in class, he gave me a note. I was so nervous and blushing and excited all at the same time. I thought that note meant that he liked me too. Then I opened the note and started reading. It went something like, "Michelle, I think you are really cute and I want to go out with you...." followed by more flattering comments. Then I got to the last paragraph and read the all caps word, "NOT!" which was followed by an explanation that he would never go out with someone as skinny and ugly as me when he had a "hot" girlfriend like (I won't mention her name, as if either of them would see this anyway). I felt my face get warm with embarrassment and I felt hot tears start rolling down my cheeks. I was completely humiliated and crushed. I heard snickering and through my tears I looked up to see two of the girls from that "popular" group laughing at me. I stood up in the middle of class (something I had never dared do before), grabbed my things, and ran out the door with the crumpled note in my hand. I later found out that the boy's girlfriend and a few others from that group had told him what to write, so he wrote it in his hand writing and then one of the girls from that group delivered it to me before class started. That incident and many others that year lead to thoughts of suicide at the age of 14. When you are young, you think friends are everything and I felt like nobody liked me at school and my self image was completely ripped apart thanks to those girls. I know what bullying looks like and I know with all my heart what it feels like and I made a promise to myself that when I got hired to teach that I would do everything I could to make sure that it doesn't happen to my students. Kids can be so so mean and I try to make it a point to talk about being careful how we treat people. I don't just want to help my students improve their test scores, I want to help them become better people.
Day 9-11: September 5th-7th
I am really starting to feel those early mornings and late nights. If only my 11 month old would sleep all the way through the night! And if only my 3 year old stayed in bed until 8 am, instead of 6:30 am! I've been staying late about every day at school for the last two weeks to try to catch up on all the work. It always seems as if I had loads to do and not near enough time in the day to do it. It is really a test to be able to juggle so many balls in the air at the same time. My hat is off to single mothers. I don't know how they do it; they are AMAZING! If you were to come over to my house right now, you would find a mountain of laundry piled up in the laundry room on the floor. You would find cheerios and a dirty bib on the floor. You would find toys strewn from hell to breakfast all throughout the house and there's likely to be a ring in the bathtub from bathing two small, dirty daycare bodies every night.
So far I have escaped getting any sick germs from the kids, but I am knocking on wood as I type. I keep a big bottle of sanitizer on my desk and I pretty much use it every time I touch something a student has just given me. I am sure I will not be lucky for too much longer! My friend Kris down the hall is another first year English teacher and she got sicker than a dog the second week of school and she STILL doesn't have her voice!
You may have noticed I am lumping a few days together. I barely have time to take a bathroom break, let alone sit down and type up an entry every day, so I have resolved to do my best to post as often as I can or at least once a week.
These days the kids wrote a new ending to Tell-Tale heart and then they read their new ending in small groups in class. The assignment was to help them better understand and apply the elements of story in their own writing. I believe we did the same with the 8th graders, only they wrote their new ending for Masque of the Red Death. The majority of the kids had a lot of fun with it and I had a handful of kids from each class that wanted to share their new endings with the entire class. One student, T (who also happens to be the class clown of 7th period), had the entire class laughing so hard that I saw several students with tears streaming down their faces. T also read his new ending with the best English accent he could muster, which added to the humor. I myself was laughing and was amazed at his creativity and his talent for not only writing, but for performing before an audience. It's no wonder I am always having to tell him to pipe down. 7th period continues to be a challenge, but curiously enough, they are the class with the most A students and only two students with an F. Classroom management is still a skill that I am working on daily with all of my kids.
So far I have escaped getting any sick germs from the kids, but I am knocking on wood as I type. I keep a big bottle of sanitizer on my desk and I pretty much use it every time I touch something a student has just given me. I am sure I will not be lucky for too much longer! My friend Kris down the hall is another first year English teacher and she got sicker than a dog the second week of school and she STILL doesn't have her voice!
You may have noticed I am lumping a few days together. I barely have time to take a bathroom break, let alone sit down and type up an entry every day, so I have resolved to do my best to post as often as I can or at least once a week.
These days the kids wrote a new ending to Tell-Tale heart and then they read their new ending in small groups in class. The assignment was to help them better understand and apply the elements of story in their own writing. I believe we did the same with the 8th graders, only they wrote their new ending for Masque of the Red Death. The majority of the kids had a lot of fun with it and I had a handful of kids from each class that wanted to share their new endings with the entire class. One student, T (who also happens to be the class clown of 7th period), had the entire class laughing so hard that I saw several students with tears streaming down their faces. T also read his new ending with the best English accent he could muster, which added to the humor. I myself was laughing and was amazed at his creativity and his talent for not only writing, but for performing before an audience. It's no wonder I am always having to tell him to pipe down. 7th period continues to be a challenge, but curiously enough, they are the class with the most A students and only two students with an F. Classroom management is still a skill that I am working on daily with all of my kids.
Thursday, September 6, 2012
Day 9: September 4, 2012
Day 9:
Today I made all of my classes get up and go back out in the hallway and walk quietly back into the room and back to their seats. Then they had to quietly open up their journals and begin writing. I told them we would practice it again and again until we got it right. It really set the tone for the rest of the week. Well, at least the first 5 minutes of class is orderly and quiet!
I also introduced a point system. Each class can earn a certain amount of points for the day. They each decided as a class how many points they have to earn and what their reward would be. They earn points for coming quietly into class and getting started writing in their journals, they get a point for how they behave during class, and they can earn a point for their behavior when it is time to clean up. Each class voted to bring electronics to use/play the last 15 minutes of class on Friday. So far this week, only one class has made it halfway to the required points and tomorrow if Friday. We will see how they do next week. It has helped though with the chatter that happens when we transition from one activity to the next and now they are starting to shoosh each other because they want to earn those points!
I also stole a quite signal from another teacher. The first is I say: "Clap once if you can hear me. Clap twice if you can hear me." Usually after the double clap, I have everyone's attention. I also tell them, "Give your neighbor the finger" when they are chatty, which simply means give them the pointer finger shoosh sign. I stole that from the same teacher. Mrs. Irvine. She sure seems to be on top of it. I would like to observe her class one of these days and learn a few more tricks from her.
Another memorable 7th period event: Boy #1 came into class and found a box of Dora the Explorer fruit snacks on his desk. I was about to make my way over to investigate when I got sidetracked by a kid who was absent and wanted to know what we did the day before. Before I knew it, complete chaos had broken out and I looked up to see kids climbing over the top of each other shrieking and silvery fruit snack packages flying through the air, which were then ripped to shreds by the carnivores who caught them and consumed in a manner not unlike the way my old dog Molly would wolf down a hotdog in 2.0 seconds. I sent them all right back out into the hall asap and required absolute silence. I expressed my deep disappointment for their outlandish and animal-like behavior and made them all march silently back into the classroom and sit down. They were scared this time, I could tell. I am positive that will NEVER happen again (I hope...)
Today I made all of my classes get up and go back out in the hallway and walk quietly back into the room and back to their seats. Then they had to quietly open up their journals and begin writing. I told them we would practice it again and again until we got it right. It really set the tone for the rest of the week. Well, at least the first 5 minutes of class is orderly and quiet!
I also introduced a point system. Each class can earn a certain amount of points for the day. They each decided as a class how many points they have to earn and what their reward would be. They earn points for coming quietly into class and getting started writing in their journals, they get a point for how they behave during class, and they can earn a point for their behavior when it is time to clean up. Each class voted to bring electronics to use/play the last 15 minutes of class on Friday. So far this week, only one class has made it halfway to the required points and tomorrow if Friday. We will see how they do next week. It has helped though with the chatter that happens when we transition from one activity to the next and now they are starting to shoosh each other because they want to earn those points!
I also stole a quite signal from another teacher. The first is I say: "Clap once if you can hear me. Clap twice if you can hear me." Usually after the double clap, I have everyone's attention. I also tell them, "Give your neighbor the finger" when they are chatty, which simply means give them the pointer finger shoosh sign. I stole that from the same teacher. Mrs. Irvine. She sure seems to be on top of it. I would like to observe her class one of these days and learn a few more tricks from her.
Another memorable 7th period event: Boy #1 came into class and found a box of Dora the Explorer fruit snacks on his desk. I was about to make my way over to investigate when I got sidetracked by a kid who was absent and wanted to know what we did the day before. Before I knew it, complete chaos had broken out and I looked up to see kids climbing over the top of each other shrieking and silvery fruit snack packages flying through the air, which were then ripped to shreds by the carnivores who caught them and consumed in a manner not unlike the way my old dog Molly would wolf down a hotdog in 2.0 seconds. I sent them all right back out into the hall asap and required absolute silence. I expressed my deep disappointment for their outlandish and animal-like behavior and made them all march silently back into the classroom and sit down. They were scared this time, I could tell. I am positive that will NEVER happen again (I hope...)
Day 8: August 31st, 2012
Day 8:
Woohoo! It's Friday once again! Bound to be a good day right?
I finished reading Red Death to my 8th graders today. We discussed the story at the end and I got quite a good response from about every student, which told me that most all of them were listening and were truly interested in the story. You wouldn't believe the groans and moans and wailing I heard when I told them what we were going to do next: Write a new ending to Masque of the Red Death. You would have thought I asked them to define 100 words out of the dictionary! Nevertheless, the majority of them were able to write down an excruciating one page alternative ending to the story. This was also their first homework assignment for those who didn't finish in class.
I honestly cannot remember what I did with my 7th graders today (I am writing these posts from memory until I am caught up!) What I do know is that the class periods were shorter for this day and I was required to perform in a skit with three other new teachers in front of the school for an 8th period assembly. That wasn't so bad because most of our skit was done behind the curtain where hundreds of eyes weren't focused on us. Two memorable comments from 7th period (7th period is proving to be a difficult class!): "M" (girl): Looks at me and says "Are you going to have a baby?" Me: No, I'm just chubby because I just had a baby this last year. My conclusion? 7th graders have not yet learned the unwritten social rule that you DO NOT EVER ask a woman if she is pregnant unless it is glaringly obvious that she is. "A": Raises his hand (and all I can think is, oh no, what is going to come out of his mouth this time?) "I am going to be completely honest. I find this journal writing boring and difficult. I don't have anything to say." Me: "Of course you have something to say. The point of this exercise is to get you writing, even if you don't know what to say, so in the mean time, write the first thing that comes into your head and go from there." "A": Talking fast "Well, right now I have a bad song going through my head and I am NOT going to write those words down!" Me: "Don't write those words down, just write, 'I have a bad song going through my head and today is not my day' Yikes! I can tell you right now that that will be the last time he does that in front of the class. I am going to let my students know that if they have a problem with what I am teaching, to talk to me after class about it and not bring it up randomly in the middle of class to make a show out of it. Wow, my 8th graders are really looking good now!
Woohoo! It's Friday once again! Bound to be a good day right?
I finished reading Red Death to my 8th graders today. We discussed the story at the end and I got quite a good response from about every student, which told me that most all of them were listening and were truly interested in the story. You wouldn't believe the groans and moans and wailing I heard when I told them what we were going to do next: Write a new ending to Masque of the Red Death. You would have thought I asked them to define 100 words out of the dictionary! Nevertheless, the majority of them were able to write down an excruciating one page alternative ending to the story. This was also their first homework assignment for those who didn't finish in class.
I honestly cannot remember what I did with my 7th graders today (I am writing these posts from memory until I am caught up!) What I do know is that the class periods were shorter for this day and I was required to perform in a skit with three other new teachers in front of the school for an 8th period assembly. That wasn't so bad because most of our skit was done behind the curtain where hundreds of eyes weren't focused on us. Two memorable comments from 7th period (7th period is proving to be a difficult class!): "M" (girl): Looks at me and says "Are you going to have a baby?" Me: No, I'm just chubby because I just had a baby this last year. My conclusion? 7th graders have not yet learned the unwritten social rule that you DO NOT EVER ask a woman if she is pregnant unless it is glaringly obvious that she is. "A": Raises his hand (and all I can think is, oh no, what is going to come out of his mouth this time?) "I am going to be completely honest. I find this journal writing boring and difficult. I don't have anything to say." Me: "Of course you have something to say. The point of this exercise is to get you writing, even if you don't know what to say, so in the mean time, write the first thing that comes into your head and go from there." "A": Talking fast "Well, right now I have a bad song going through my head and I am NOT going to write those words down!" Me: "Don't write those words down, just write, 'I have a bad song going through my head and today is not my day' Yikes! I can tell you right now that that will be the last time he does that in front of the class. I am going to let my students know that if they have a problem with what I am teaching, to talk to me after class about it and not bring it up randomly in the middle of class to make a show out of it. Wow, my 8th graders are really looking good now!
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