This post will definitely be edited from time to time. These are my notes to myself (and anyone who cares) about what I want to do differently next year:
1. Do not let students try to shoot things into the trash can. I will admit, when the students stand far away and ask me to shoot, I'm a little curious to see if they can even make it, so I give in.
2. Still debating on a good homework check system. This year I have class period bins where they drop their homework every day when they first come into class. Then I go through them for completion and give them credit if they do the work. Thinking if I should walk around class and eyeball instead. This doesn't seem to give them as much accountability and I feel like they won't want to do their homework. Thoughts?
3. Give students roles in the class: paper passer, erase my white board, emergency kit (for fire drills), paper collector etc.
4. Start a point system in the beginning of school. Reward points for everyone being on time with their warm up out, all turning in homework, good report from the guest teacher etc. Negative points for being rude to guest teacher (deduct points per student with a bad report), talking back/being disruptive to teacher etc.
5. I don't know how it is in every grade level, but I realized I have to teach my 7th and 8th graders how to do EVERYTHING. Assume they don't know a thing and teach it all: how to label the header with first AND last name/date/period, how to take notes, have the holes on the paper facing the left, copy down each problem from the math book before solving it, skip lines in between problems, circle/box the answers, only use pencil, one staple and one staple ONLY when turning in assignments.
6. I'm debating on charging money for certain school supplies: 25 cents for a pencil or a notebook. Don't know the rules about this though...
7. I need a system when it comes to assignments for absent students, posting homework on the board, and how I have it written in my grading system. I do blame the limited space we have in our school's grading program, but I need to be better at this. Every time I give a worksheet for homework, I put it in a binder in the back of the classroom with a tab that says "(insert day of the week) Homework" and trained students to look back there the next day they come back from their absence. But when I write it in my grading system, sometimes I'll abbreviate it differently than what I have written on the board. This may not make sense to some of you, but the reason it's a problem is that it makes my life harder when I give out progress reports. I have to look through the work, and interpret which worksheets kids are missing instead of having them be able to do it on their own. Which brings me to my next point "change"...
8. Should I let students make up work? I already take late work. But when I print out progress reports and students see a list of all their missing work, they want to make it all up. 1. This takes up more of my time to find the work for them and potentially need to make more copies and 2. more time to grade. BUT if I don't let them make up work, there will be even MORE students failing my class (compared to the MANY that are already failing...)
...TO BE CONTINUED...
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Thursday, October 14, 2010
A Happy Moment
I've had some rough days recently in my classroom, but if there's one thing I love most, it's having those little reminders about why I love teaching so much. I don't like to play favorites, but I do have one class period that I absolutely love. They are a great bunch of kids compared to my other periods with such discipline issues. I had a new girl come into this class period and she automatically stands out: rude, disobedient, and doesn't do any of the work. Today her true colors came out and she decided to shout and mouth off to me because she did a problem wrong. Of course I am not phased by this adolescent outburst and stuck her in the corner. My wonderful students in this class are immediately shocked by this and whisper to me that they don't want her in this class anymore. It's like a lightbulb went off in their heads that they would never treat me the way this girl just did, and continued to reassure me. They wanted absolutely nothing to do with such a negative person. I know this might not sound like a big deal, but this was my first real insight into my students' minds. They are still very young and immature and adjusting with 8th grade, but today was THEE day where I truly felt they understood how difficult it is to be to be a teacher. Love it.
Monday, September 6, 2010
My first "first day of school"
Quick recap, I started in the middle of the school year last year after receiving my teaching credential, so I've never had a "first day of school" day. After receiving my pink slip, I was rehired 1 month into summer by the same school, this time moving into an International Baccalaureate (IB) school model. I was pretty nervous about these new types of lesson plans I'll have to do, but my principal reassured me there's training and since it's the first year, we'll only need to create one IB lesson plan. Score. I accepted.
I was a nervous wreck several days before school started. I went into the school every day for a week to decorate and take a look at my new textbooks and curriculum I'll teach. I learned that I was teaching an Algebra Readiness course for 8th grade and one 7th grade Pre Algebra class. 7th graders?? I was nervous since I've never taught any grade lower than 8th and I remember 7th grade me an extremely awkward year for everyone. One thing I learned was 1 week was not enough time for me to prepare, especially since 2 of those days were spent at all-day meetings. I must've edited my syllabus 100 times and still couldn't decide how to grade homework, what students should do with late work, and even how I should arrange the tables in my classroom! See, student teaching doesn't prepare you for these things! I even felt like more pressure would be on me this year since last year everyone said my students were "terrible" because they had 3 bad teachers before me. This year, I was solely accountable. Yikes. Did I also mention my students test scores were over 60% below basic. Great.
Of course I didn't sleep my first week as a teacher due to excitement, nervousness, anxiety, and anticipation. My first day consisted of 2 in class assignments. One, was writing a letter to their future self. I told them I could give it to them on their last day of school (8th grade promotion) or to mail it to them 4 year from now when they're in senior year of high school. They wanted the high school thing, so they wrote a letter, brought it back in a self-addressed stamped envelope and I will mail it 4 years from now. I haven't quite decided how I'm going to deal with the students who will move by then but I'll figure it out by the end of the year. Note to self: Students in 8th grade don't know how to label an envelope to themselves, so next time I do this activity, I should teach them as a class before I have them do it on their own! My 2nd activity was something I had to come up with on the spot (since I thought they'd put more thought into their letters and that would take up all period) I have a bell I use in class so this was a perfect activity to start training them. Every time I rang the bell, I made them stop, look, listen for directions. I told them stuff like "look for someone with the same color shirt as you" or "find someone with the same first letter of your first name" and then I'd ask them to find out something about their partner i.e. favorite color, movie, music, tv show etc. This way they start learning about my classroom procedures with the bell, and also learned more about each other. Worked out well to share some answers at the end so I knew what was going on in the 8th grade world these days. This way, I can talk about some of their favorites when I'm teaching to get them interested.
Analysis: First day of school tells you a lot. Even if the students are known for misbehaving, the first day of school is usually quiet and students typically listen and follow directions. I had a class of only 23 students (it's typically 33 on average) and they were really tough that first day. Needless to say, 2 weeks in, they are still my most difficult class. I also noticed that students appreciate "nice" teachers. I know everyone says "don't smile till December" and make sure the students respect you and fear you, and maybe that works from some, but for those that know me, that'll never work with my style. The students look at me and think I'm straight out of high school. I tell them I expect lots. Tell a couple jokes here and there, drop in "Jersey Shores" comments, smile a lot and by the end of the first week, but students are already telling me how much they love math class and how they actually want to learn this year (even though they hate math). Music to a teachers ears. Success! Let's see how the rest of our days go...
I was a nervous wreck several days before school started. I went into the school every day for a week to decorate and take a look at my new textbooks and curriculum I'll teach. I learned that I was teaching an Algebra Readiness course for 8th grade and one 7th grade Pre Algebra class. 7th graders?? I was nervous since I've never taught any grade lower than 8th and I remember 7th grade me an extremely awkward year for everyone. One thing I learned was 1 week was not enough time for me to prepare, especially since 2 of those days were spent at all-day meetings. I must've edited my syllabus 100 times and still couldn't decide how to grade homework, what students should do with late work, and even how I should arrange the tables in my classroom! See, student teaching doesn't prepare you for these things! I even felt like more pressure would be on me this year since last year everyone said my students were "terrible" because they had 3 bad teachers before me. This year, I was solely accountable. Yikes. Did I also mention my students test scores were over 60% below basic. Great.
Of course I didn't sleep my first week as a teacher due to excitement, nervousness, anxiety, and anticipation. My first day consisted of 2 in class assignments. One, was writing a letter to their future self. I told them I could give it to them on their last day of school (8th grade promotion) or to mail it to them 4 year from now when they're in senior year of high school. They wanted the high school thing, so they wrote a letter, brought it back in a self-addressed stamped envelope and I will mail it 4 years from now. I haven't quite decided how I'm going to deal with the students who will move by then but I'll figure it out by the end of the year. Note to self: Students in 8th grade don't know how to label an envelope to themselves, so next time I do this activity, I should teach them as a class before I have them do it on their own! My 2nd activity was something I had to come up with on the spot (since I thought they'd put more thought into their letters and that would take up all period) I have a bell I use in class so this was a perfect activity to start training them. Every time I rang the bell, I made them stop, look, listen for directions. I told them stuff like "look for someone with the same color shirt as you" or "find someone with the same first letter of your first name" and then I'd ask them to find out something about their partner i.e. favorite color, movie, music, tv show etc. This way they start learning about my classroom procedures with the bell, and also learned more about each other. Worked out well to share some answers at the end so I knew what was going on in the 8th grade world these days. This way, I can talk about some of their favorites when I'm teaching to get them interested.
Analysis: First day of school tells you a lot. Even if the students are known for misbehaving, the first day of school is usually quiet and students typically listen and follow directions. I had a class of only 23 students (it's typically 33 on average) and they were really tough that first day. Needless to say, 2 weeks in, they are still my most difficult class. I also noticed that students appreciate "nice" teachers. I know everyone says "don't smile till December" and make sure the students respect you and fear you, and maybe that works from some, but for those that know me, that'll never work with my style. The students look at me and think I'm straight out of high school. I tell them I expect lots. Tell a couple jokes here and there, drop in "Jersey Shores" comments, smile a lot and by the end of the first week, but students are already telling me how much they love math class and how they actually want to learn this year (even though they hate math). Music to a teachers ears. Success! Let's see how the rest of our days go...
Friday, July 2, 2010
My Story
Students expect a teacher to know everything. What they didn't know, was how much they taught me during my first year as a teacher.
I completed my Single Subject Math teaching credential in January 2010 which meant that every middle and high school out there was starting their second semester of school. That means no job openings until the next school year. I immediately panicked and started applying to every school district substitute list within 45 minutes of where I lived. One month later, I finally received my first substitute assignment to teach a kindergarten class for 3 days. Awesome! Since I had no experience in teaching students younger than 6th grade, I was excited and nervous for this assignment. Several days before substituting, I received the best phone call someone could ever get in this tough economy: There is a potential 8th grade math teacher position opening up, are you willing to come in tomorrow to interview and teach a sample lesson? OF COURSE! I went in on Wednesday, interviewed, received the job that day, was told I will be replacing a teacher who will be fired tomorrow, and I started my very first day in my own classroom that Friday. I learned later that it was a serendipitous moment that gave me this wonderful opportunity to teach. My substitute paperwork was incomplete and was being checked by the district secretary who saw that I had a math credential. This is rare in an elementary school district which has middle schools too. She mentioned my name to the assistant superintendent, and the rest is history.
As if the first year as a teacher isn't hard enough, imagine only having 2 days to prepare and learn the rules of the school before walking into a classroom in the middle of the school year where I will be the students' FOURTH math teacher. It was only February! They were a rowdy bunch and I had to somehow convince these kids that I've been "teaching for years" and even though I looked like I was 18 years old (yes, that's what they guessed my age to be) I had to show them who's boss. I'm writing this blog the summer after my first semester of teaching, since I didn't have any time during the school year. Read. Learn. Enjoy.
I completed my Single Subject Math teaching credential in January 2010 which meant that every middle and high school out there was starting their second semester of school. That means no job openings until the next school year. I immediately panicked and started applying to every school district substitute list within 45 minutes of where I lived. One month later, I finally received my first substitute assignment to teach a kindergarten class for 3 days. Awesome! Since I had no experience in teaching students younger than 6th grade, I was excited and nervous for this assignment. Several days before substituting, I received the best phone call someone could ever get in this tough economy: There is a potential 8th grade math teacher position opening up, are you willing to come in tomorrow to interview and teach a sample lesson? OF COURSE! I went in on Wednesday, interviewed, received the job that day, was told I will be replacing a teacher who will be fired tomorrow, and I started my very first day in my own classroom that Friday. I learned later that it was a serendipitous moment that gave me this wonderful opportunity to teach. My substitute paperwork was incomplete and was being checked by the district secretary who saw that I had a math credential. This is rare in an elementary school district which has middle schools too. She mentioned my name to the assistant superintendent, and the rest is history.
As if the first year as a teacher isn't hard enough, imagine only having 2 days to prepare and learn the rules of the school before walking into a classroom in the middle of the school year where I will be the students' FOURTH math teacher. It was only February! They were a rowdy bunch and I had to somehow convince these kids that I've been "teaching for years" and even though I looked like I was 18 years old (yes, that's what they guessed my age to be) I had to show them who's boss. I'm writing this blog the summer after my first semester of teaching, since I didn't have any time during the school year. Read. Learn. Enjoy.
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