Wednesday, September 19, 2012

U-Surped Me

I have three very loud and opinionated students in my 8th grade Language Arts classroom. They're the type that ask unrelated questions while I'm trying to have a discussion, or blurt out their feelings in inappropriate times. I want to put their leadership to good use. I know that they could change the entire atmosphere of my classroom. I've tried giving them class jobs, such as being in charge of handing out books or revealing today's journal, but it usually backfires and the class becomes distracted. I knew it was getting bad today when I asked one of them to be in charge of lining up the class and another student asked me "who's teaching this class, Ms. Hamilton?"

How do I get them on my side? It's not that they don't like me, it's that they know they can have attention from the rest of the class when they act the way they do. I can only remove them from class for so long without having to catch them up on what they miss when they're taking a "time out" in the hallway.

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Friend or Foe

Yesterday I had a student tell me that he considers me more of a friend than a teacher. Uh-oh. I've always been a strong advocate of the teacher being a TEACHER, not a friend that tries to fit in with the "cool crowd." So...is it okay for my students to think that way? I set boundaries in my classroom, and I set boundaries within my student-teacher relationships. I want the classroom to feel like a community, but I also want them to know that I'm the head of that community. Someone tell me, where is that line drawn? I thought I was already drawing it...

Monday, September 10, 2012

Week One and Done?

Yesterday (Sunday) I had quite the epiphany. I felt oh so accomplished after successfully (for the most part) completing my first week of school as a teacher that I forgot to stop and think of all the work still to be done for the following week.

Wait...I'm doing this for an entire year?

For some reason, maybe because I'm the youngest teacher in the school, I'm still in Student Teacher mode - work 8 weeks and then graduate to the next one. Suddenly, the weeks, days, and class periods seemed much, much longer. Planning for an entire year - it's something that I've always known would happen, but have never been able to completely wrap my head around. For all of you seasoned teachers out there - bravo. You are amazing.

SO, if anyone has any advice at all for planning for large spans of time, I would gladly take it. I struggle the most with the fact that plans can change so rapidly. Setting specific dates in the future seems so...pointless sometimes.

Help?