teaching these kids is such a struggle. i'm constantly battling for control of my classroom. all they want to do is TALK. even when they're so into what we're learning, they just talk and talk. the group work can be pretty dysfunctional too. i have them agree upon and sign up for roles before they begin every project. but they just can't figure out how to work together! i supposed they'll get better with time, but my god, every group complains about each other.

i do have to say though that when it came down to presentation time, all the groups pulled it together nicely and did a great job. almost everyone had an understanding of the work. so i guess it's not too bad.

what is a problem though is that i'm way behind on my pacing. i anticipate skipping an entire chapter, plus i skipped half of our current chapter. i'd rather not bore and confuse the kids with stuff that they might see one question on. but we are about a month behind my colleagues teaching the same course. i do way too many projects and fun activities that take up a lot of time. but somehow i'm thinking that i will have just as many, if not more kids passing the regents.

honestly, i have maybe 5 level 3s's and the rest of my kids came in as level 1's and 2's. if other teachers have a similar demographic, i can't possibly see how they could go through the material so fast and leave the kids with a good understanding of it. if they can, power to them. but i know we will cover about 90% of the material and most of my students will know it well.

in other news i picked up another hour of per session per week. so now i'm up to an extra $120/week. sweeeeeet.