Pressing On

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:)