i teach in the main hallway in my school and lately there has been at least one fight a week outside my doors during class. usually when this happens, you can observe classroom doors swinging open throughout the entire hall as students rush out to see what's going on.
today there was a fight near the end of the day as i was 45 minutes into a math class and trying to get the class's attention to start to wrap up.
there was yelling outside and students swarmed into the hallway to get involved.
my kids actually ASKED me if they could leave their seats to see what was going on! i told them they could crowd around and watch but they had to keep my doors closed. and they listened.
unbelievable.
and within 3 minutes i was able to resume, give out some reminders, and a wrap up problem.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
the lull before christmas break
i feel like both mine and my students' motivation is sinking. it's that time of year again!!
before thanksgiving the classes were getting out of control so i kicked off this week with a return to rules. good strategy. i called 3 parents today alone and got one student suspended. maybe things will get better...
i really really miss last year's students. but i'm starting to like this year's kids more, too. not all of them, but a few of them are growing on me.
bad habit of the month: i am coming into school with no lesson plans and just a general idea of where i'm going. i make up my lessons in between periods, or take 10 minutes during my preps. but i'm encouraged to keep doing this because it's working.
like today, in 15 minutes i came up with a full lesson that divided my room into 4 stations, with activities and a competition where each team got 10 minutes per station to complete the tasks then had to rotate. then they got 5 minutes to fix up their work and hand in a portfolio for immediate grading and a reward for the top team. i got lucky and found 2 activities online immediately, and then made up 2 of my own. and it went over amazingly! the kids loved it soooo much, i'm totally repeating this lesson for all my other classes.
shit like this tempts me to come in empty handed again.
before thanksgiving the classes were getting out of control so i kicked off this week with a return to rules. good strategy. i called 3 parents today alone and got one student suspended. maybe things will get better...
i really really miss last year's students. but i'm starting to like this year's kids more, too. not all of them, but a few of them are growing on me.
bad habit of the month: i am coming into school with no lesson plans and just a general idea of where i'm going. i make up my lessons in between periods, or take 10 minutes during my preps. but i'm encouraged to keep doing this because it's working.
like today, in 15 minutes i came up with a full lesson that divided my room into 4 stations, with activities and a competition where each team got 10 minutes per station to complete the tasks then had to rotate. then they got 5 minutes to fix up their work and hand in a portfolio for immediate grading and a reward for the top team. i got lucky and found 2 activities online immediately, and then made up 2 of my own. and it went over amazingly! the kids loved it soooo much, i'm totally repeating this lesson for all my other classes.
shit like this tempts me to come in empty handed again.
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