As I sit down to write this, two things cross my mind: this bun is so tight on my head, but I don't feel just how tight it is till the school day's over. I guess till then, I have enough prior headaches! ("Headaches" used lightly). Second, I am applauding myself for actually sitting down and writing this for once, instead of letting thoughts sit and rot in my mind. Finally, I am seizing the peach while it is ripe!
I have two topics I want to write about today: "The Role of Mercy (and perhaps justice too, consequently) in Education," and "I Need the DL on the DI (Differentiated Instruction)."
Chapter One - The Punishment that will Motivate Good Behavior (what is it??)
What is the place of mercy in public education? That is, when rules are broken, and order is destroyed in the classroom, and I feel like I can't teach because of it, is it wrong to write a student up when their disobedience will cripple their academics? Suspensions are an odd punishment. They cause kids to fail. I have seen suspended kids return to my class without the fire in their eyes anymore. They simply check-out and let all the land slide.
Two boys and a girl had minor offenses in my class these past two days. Two of them walked out of my room without permission (3 days at-home suspension automatic), and the other talked back over and over and over again, and was insubordinate and rude until it drove me absolutely nuts. So I wrote him up. (BTW: I am so thankful that the admin. stood behind me on that one...the very-concerned mother called in to the office and requested the children's voices be heard against the teachers, but my administrator told her, "Ms. Nelson rarely suspends students, so her word stands." This mother is quite the character: a devout Christian, a definite disciplinarian, very protective of her son and skeptical of my decision to refer him...and yet, after her conference ith me today, she hugged me...what a tumultuous relationship we have!)
And the fourth boy, one of my trickiest students to discipline, blew a fuze, threw stuff and cussed at me to his heart's content when he received a minor consequence. I feel like he tries to control me by rejecting my rules and consequences system. Despite some progress with him, I am still very uneasy about him. I feel like his presence is very foreboding to how successful class will be for everyone that day. The incident shook me up.My class today with 8th period was a dream without him there. I feel awful saying it...but it's true.
As I told my brother went after these two bad days,I wish I could just turn off my nerves, and thoughts.They run non-stop...for example, all weekend I played and replayed the scene with my bad class in my head, as well as what I should have done and what I should do next time.
As I reach the end of Novemeber, I am happy to sa I am getting some bearings on this here job. Now I recognize a distinct area of improvement I need to pursue (I can think of more, but I'll focus on just htis one for now): Giving kids stuff to do when they complete assignments ahead of everybody else!
One idea-er I got was to allow them to polish off the book Speak (keep on reading ahead), and then when they're through, give them an entirely new book to read. The trouble with this is that is might (a) cause students around them to get distracted, be envious, make a fuss, etc., and (b) it would (or at least I fear it would) be hard to have my students be doing multiple things at one time. I need to just throw those fears out the window though. I really like the idea of having them read more. I have a book in mind, too: a historical fiction novel by the same author as Speak. It's called Fever 1793. I oughta use my EEF funds (a government-issued stipend teachers get annually to buy supplies) to buy 4-5 copies of that book. I wonder if students would be as engaged with it as Speak, seeing as it is not modern? But the constant between the two books is the teenage point-of-view.
Another way fast-working kids could occupy themselves would be to help their classmates do their work, or grade for me. I need to remember to have them do that today, to grade all those vocab quizzes!!! Today they're taking a test. Which is the topic of my next chapter...
Chapter Three - Testing Troubles
I just "ran" the multiple-choice portion of my test through the Scantron reader last night. The resuts have been dismal. I am giving my B-day classes the same test today. I think I am really failing in the department of preparing the exam first, then teaching in order to prepare them for it. I think I write my tests using words and phrases that are foreign to them. Sure, I was to make the test rigorous...but I also think it is not fair how I don't really prepare them for the exam. We do activities and have discussions in class about these topics (connotation, theme, conflict, etc.), BUT that does not necessarily align with the questions I give them. I guess I am abiding by the ill-conceived assumption that if kids hear it in class, they ought to be able to recognize it and understand it in multiple contexts thereafter. I promise, that for the final exam that I will give in December, I am going to write it over Thanksgiving break. It will be my little experiment, to test and see if the theory of assessing that I learned in my education classes (and from dear ole Wong & Wong) is really true: that tests ought to be made before any teaching occurs. that way, the teacher always has preparation in mind for her students. Isn't that funsamentally what a teacher is: an Equipper for Success?
I wonder if that test needs curving...or, if I can give them the opportunity to "make corrections" to redeem points? One thing is for sure, I think my essay topic/idea bombed, for the most part! I had them use a brainstorming sheet they developed two weeks earlier to draft their persuasive essay. Most of them threw them out the window and just chose the topic I put on the test meant only for the stragglers who never turned the brainstorm sheets in!! Conundrum after conundrum...
I have two topics I want to write about today: "The Role of Mercy (and perhaps justice too, consequently) in Education," and "I Need the DL on the DI (Differentiated Instruction)."
Chapter One - The Punishment that will Motivate Good Behavior (what is it??)
What is the place of mercy in public education? That is, when rules are broken, and order is destroyed in the classroom, and I feel like I can't teach because of it, is it wrong to write a student up when their disobedience will cripple their academics? Suspensions are an odd punishment. They cause kids to fail. I have seen suspended kids return to my class without the fire in their eyes anymore. They simply check-out and let all the land slide.
Two boys and a girl had minor offenses in my class these past two days. Two of them walked out of my room without permission (3 days at-home suspension automatic), and the other talked back over and over and over again, and was insubordinate and rude until it drove me absolutely nuts. So I wrote him up. (BTW: I am so thankful that the admin. stood behind me on that one...the very-concerned mother called in to the office and requested the children's voices be heard against the teachers, but my administrator told her, "Ms. Nelson rarely suspends students, so her word stands." This mother is quite the character: a devout Christian, a definite disciplinarian, very protective of her son and skeptical of my decision to refer him...and yet, after her conference ith me today, she hugged me...what a tumultuous relationship we have!)
And the fourth boy, one of my trickiest students to discipline, blew a fuze, threw stuff and cussed at me to his heart's content when he received a minor consequence. I feel like he tries to control me by rejecting my rules and consequences system. Despite some progress with him, I am still very uneasy about him. I feel like his presence is very foreboding to how successful class will be for everyone that day. The incident shook me up.My class today with 8th period was a dream without him there. I feel awful saying it...but it's true.
As I told my brother went after these two bad days,I wish I could just turn off my nerves, and thoughts.They run non-stop...for example, all weekend I played and replayed the scene with my bad class in my head, as well as what I should have done and what I should do next time.
November is hard...I am glad there are only 9 more days of it in school until break.
I need to find a way to keep my spirits upand not get discouraged.
it seems like all my good students are turning bad
I think a lot about how crippling the punishment of suspension is, and how Plato said in the Republic, a punishment is not just if it sets the offender bad even further and makes it harder for him to obey. When troublemakers return to class, they're so behind, they are bound to cause trouble all over again. But what other consequence is there to give? Also, what about everyone else's education in that classroom -- don't they deserve justice too, access to a non-disruptive classroom where learning is actually taking place?
My thoughts on this subject are jumbled and unclear at best. I need to think more about this. Perhaps it would make a good final research topic for me next year in Teacher Corps: Finding Alternative Consequences for Severely Unacceptable Behavior in School. Don't get too excited just yet, though; I have a tendency to think up topics and then quickly abandon them in light of a more appealing one!
Chapter Two - Keeping Them Busy
I think a lot about how crippling the punishment of suspension is, and how Plato said in the Republic, a punishment is not just if it sets the offender bad even further and makes it harder for him to obey. When troublemakers return to class, they're so behind, they are bound to cause trouble all over again. But what other consequence is there to give? Also, what about everyone else's education in that classroom -- don't they deserve justice too, access to a non-disruptive classroom where learning is actually taking place?
My thoughts on this subject are jumbled and unclear at best. I need to think more about this. Perhaps it would make a good final research topic for me next year in Teacher Corps: Finding Alternative Consequences for Severely Unacceptable Behavior in School. Don't get too excited just yet, though; I have a tendency to think up topics and then quickly abandon them in light of a more appealing one!
Chapter Two - Keeping Them Busy
[Epigraph]
Sow your seed in the morning,
and at evening let not your hands be idle,
for you do not know which will succeed, whether this or that,
or whether both will do equally well. Ecclesiastes 11:6
and at evening let not your hands be idle,
for you do not know which will succeed, whether this or that,
or whether both will do equally well. Ecclesiastes 11:6
As I reach the end of Novemeber, I am happy to sa I am getting some bearings on this here job. Now I recognize a distinct area of improvement I need to pursue (I can think of more, but I'll focus on just htis one for now): Giving kids stuff to do when they complete assignments ahead of everybody else!
One idea-er I got was to allow them to polish off the book Speak (keep on reading ahead), and then when they're through, give them an entirely new book to read. The trouble with this is that is might (a) cause students around them to get distracted, be envious, make a fuss, etc., and (b) it would (or at least I fear it would) be hard to have my students be doing multiple things at one time. I need to just throw those fears out the window though. I really like the idea of having them read more. I have a book in mind, too: a historical fiction novel by the same author as Speak. It's called Fever 1793. I oughta use my EEF funds (a government-issued stipend teachers get annually to buy supplies) to buy 4-5 copies of that book. I wonder if students would be as engaged with it as Speak, seeing as it is not modern? But the constant between the two books is the teenage point-of-view.
Another way fast-working kids could occupy themselves would be to help their classmates do their work, or grade for me. I need to remember to have them do that today, to grade all those vocab quizzes!!! Today they're taking a test. Which is the topic of my next chapter...
Chapter Three - Testing Troubles
I just "ran" the multiple-choice portion of my test through the Scantron reader last night. The resuts have been dismal. I am giving my B-day classes the same test today. I think I am really failing in the department of preparing the exam first, then teaching in order to prepare them for it. I think I write my tests using words and phrases that are foreign to them. Sure, I was to make the test rigorous...but I also think it is not fair how I don't really prepare them for the exam. We do activities and have discussions in class about these topics (connotation, theme, conflict, etc.), BUT that does not necessarily align with the questions I give them. I guess I am abiding by the ill-conceived assumption that if kids hear it in class, they ought to be able to recognize it and understand it in multiple contexts thereafter. I promise, that for the final exam that I will give in December, I am going to write it over Thanksgiving break. It will be my little experiment, to test and see if the theory of assessing that I learned in my education classes (and from dear ole Wong & Wong) is really true: that tests ought to be made before any teaching occurs. that way, the teacher always has preparation in mind for her students. Isn't that funsamentally what a teacher is: an Equipper for Success?
I wonder if that test needs curving...or, if I can give them the opportunity to "make corrections" to redeem points? One thing is for sure, I think my essay topic/idea bombed, for the most part! I had them use a brainstorming sheet they developed two weeks earlier to draft their persuasive essay. Most of them threw them out the window and just chose the topic I put on the test meant only for the stragglers who never turned the brainstorm sheets in!! Conundrum after conundrum...
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