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.