Sounds strange to be saying that in the dead of winter! First Week of School. A week it has been! No amount of practice, training, or education could have prepared me for this first week. They say that your first few years of teaching are the most difficult. I never believed that while student teaching. Everything came naturally and with minimal stress. However, this time, things were just a little different.
To give you a background, I was hired as an 8th Grade Learning Support teacher at a local Middle School. I had always thought of teaching middle school, after having some stellar teachers when I myself was a middle schooler. I also adore working in learning support. It gives me an opportunity to work with some outstanding students who can accomplish their goals with help! I am replacing a teacher who is out on maternity leave, so my first two days involved me observing her in action, and a teacher in-service day in which we got lots of planning done. Tuesday was my first official day with students and without their former teacher. I was SO excited and nervous! This was my first opportunity to have my OWN classroom. I teach math, language arts, and a resource room (in which we provide support for their other classes). The first day went smoothly, as the kids were excited to meet me. Overall, I thought this was going to be a relatively easy teaching position.
Day 2: 4 of 12 students had their homework. Reasons why no homework: "We forgot, our other teacher never gave us homework (lie), didn't care about it, etc."! YIKES! I have never had an issue with homework before! Sure there were the occasional students who forgot, but who hasn't? The students were rowdy and very talkative! The boys spent lots of time staging a rubber-band war against each other; which on one occasion I ended up in the crossfire! Needless to say I was overwhelmed.
Day 3 & 4: Yet again only a few students completed their homework! Students had no motivation to do work while in class. During the designated homework time (resource room) the students chat with each other and confidently told me their homework was done. (Even though it was not. I have since learned my lesson!) A few of my students have straight Ds, Fs and the occasional C. They have been informed that they will pass the grade no matter what. Where is the motivation in wanting to be successful at something when you have been told you have already met the requirements? Especially when you are far from the established requirements.
By Friday morning (day 4) I had decided that I needed to implement my own style of classroom management and teaching. Students need to be on task while in the room. Students need to be respectful of me and the classroom community. I developed my own plan and met with the Principal and Vice-Principal to ensure that it was okay to implement. Tomorrow is the big day! The plan will be put into effect. On the flip side of the coin, I want to figure out what motivates a few of my kiddos who don't seem to care about much anymore. Establishing rapport with students has been something I have always considered to be one of my strengths, but I need to put it into overdrive.
Tomorrow starts a new week, and a new Miss Johnson! I am starting this week out on a positive foot and hoping that the rest of this school year will provide my students chances to learn a great deal, and that it will provide me with the opportunity to learn from my students. I have been so blessed to have so much love and support from the people around me, and for that I am grateful! I know that Rome was not built in a day, and the perfect classroom will not be either.
ps - LOTS of recipes, classroom pics, and other awesome things to come! I am just pooped out tonight! :)
To give you a background, I was hired as an 8th Grade Learning Support teacher at a local Middle School. I had always thought of teaching middle school, after having some stellar teachers when I myself was a middle schooler. I also adore working in learning support. It gives me an opportunity to work with some outstanding students who can accomplish their goals with help! I am replacing a teacher who is out on maternity leave, so my first two days involved me observing her in action, and a teacher in-service day in which we got lots of planning done. Tuesday was my first official day with students and without their former teacher. I was SO excited and nervous! This was my first opportunity to have my OWN classroom. I teach math, language arts, and a resource room (in which we provide support for their other classes). The first day went smoothly, as the kids were excited to meet me. Overall, I thought this was going to be a relatively easy teaching position.
Day 2: 4 of 12 students had their homework. Reasons why no homework: "We forgot, our other teacher never gave us homework (lie), didn't care about it, etc."! YIKES! I have never had an issue with homework before! Sure there were the occasional students who forgot, but who hasn't? The students were rowdy and very talkative! The boys spent lots of time staging a rubber-band war against each other; which on one occasion I ended up in the crossfire! Needless to say I was overwhelmed.
Day 3 & 4: Yet again only a few students completed their homework! Students had no motivation to do work while in class. During the designated homework time (resource room) the students chat with each other and confidently told me their homework was done. (Even though it was not. I have since learned my lesson!) A few of my students have straight Ds, Fs and the occasional C. They have been informed that they will pass the grade no matter what. Where is the motivation in wanting to be successful at something when you have been told you have already met the requirements? Especially when you are far from the established requirements.
By Friday morning (day 4) I had decided that I needed to implement my own style of classroom management and teaching. Students need to be on task while in the room. Students need to be respectful of me and the classroom community. I developed my own plan and met with the Principal and Vice-Principal to ensure that it was okay to implement. Tomorrow is the big day! The plan will be put into effect. On the flip side of the coin, I want to figure out what motivates a few of my kiddos who don't seem to care about much anymore. Establishing rapport with students has been something I have always considered to be one of my strengths, but I need to put it into overdrive.
Tomorrow starts a new week, and a new Miss Johnson! I am starting this week out on a positive foot and hoping that the rest of this school year will provide my students chances to learn a great deal, and that it will provide me with the opportunity to learn from my students. I have been so blessed to have so much love and support from the people around me, and for that I am grateful! I know that Rome was not built in a day, and the perfect classroom will not be either.
ps - LOTS of recipes, classroom pics, and other awesome things to come! I am just pooped out tonight! :)
Secondary Ed is a completely different ball game haha and trust me, I already see these frustrations with student teaching. The policy in my district is that teachers should keep homework to a minimum due to the poverty level. They also have their hands held a lot. They had an activity last week where they had to read an article and answer questions... the article was mainly bullet points and pie charts. The kids automatically said "I don't understand" and so my mentor told me after that class that I really need to scaffold them more. Like go through the questions and read the article with them. I absolutely refused to read the article with them. I'm not holding their hands anymore. I went through each question to make sure they understood what was being asked and they still acted like they had no idea what was going on. I'm not playing into their laziness. They're smart kids and it's about time they start applying themselves. Anyway, the moral of my story here is that tough love is sometimes vital. Secondary Ed is my baby so if you have any questions, let me know! I know you're older and such but I've been studying/working in this area of ed for a few years! (minus last year's dabble in elementary ed... not my cup of tea).
ReplyDelete