I hope I'm doing this right
So my "student teaching nemesis" class is a huge group of 7th graders with so many students it's hard to find a seating arrangement to isolate the talkers. The tables seat four and it seems like most of the students are fine but the talkers seem to infect the better behaved students too.
Also I notice in other classes some of them are gone for days, they get so behind. One of them went on a cruise, one to another country for a while. It's interesting. And somewhat annoying to have to basically teach the lesson again because they were gone or just don't remember what we were doing when they learned it. I'm trying to solve that problem. Maybe a worksheet with basic instructions I could hand the people who were gone.
I wonder if students with behavior problems have always been included or are there just more now? I remember the students in my class who acted up. We were all so weird back then too. I have noticed so many students with these types of problems have very interesting situations in their lives. Sometimes I want to cry because I can't help them, they need way more than me. This is not hard, it is a cause for concern I really have no business with, know what I mean? There is nothing really I can do but be a good example, which may or may not be enough but that's all I have.
For all practical purposes I'm doing really well. If I wasn't so tired from being hormonally out of whack I'd be on top of the world, so I'm just waiting to get back on track as it were. I have never had another choice but to be okay.
2 comments:
A worksheet with basic instructions is fine. If they or their parents felt they were doing well enough in school to pull them out for an unexcusable reason...they should be able to start and finish a project on their own. Or don't let them do it. Or give an alternative assignment. You should have those made up as back-up anyway. (When it is your classroom, you can choose to give those who misbehave an alternative and less attractive and enjoyable assignment...check with your school's policy.) It was a choice not to be there if it was a cruise or another country trip. Illness, funerals, and court were about the only reasons I would completely re-teach a lesson. You will also be surprised to find students in your class who can catch them up as well as you can. Find that kid who loves to help and let her catch them up. Then give her a special privilege for volunteering.
Some people totally disagree with me that it is okay not to let them make up an assignment for unexcused absences. In our system, it was up to the teacher. I usually allowed makeup work unless it was way too late. If they were out for 3 days, they had 3 days to make it up. Post your makeup policy in your room. Post it on your website. Write it in your syllabus, and get students and parents to sign a short form saying they received and read your policies. Then there are no questions...no excuses. There will be complaints, but you will never get rid of all of them.
uhhhhhh....and that is my 2 cents. Maybe more like 2 dollars.
ooh good! Ms. M. sat for about an hour, 40 minutes of which was after school, and caught one girl up today. She said "The clay is going to stick to the table, go get a canvas."
The girl ignored her. The clay was stuck.
M: "Well I told you the clay would stick to the desk, but you ignored me when I told you to get a canvas."
Girl: "What's a canvas?"
M. "The cloth thing."
Girl: "Oh, I thought these were the canvas," she said, "pointing to two pieces of wood."
Now at this point really I think there is a language barrier...She has a tiny accent. I need to find out what that is.
Seriously, I watched everybody while I was teaching the lesson, and they were all watching me teach. Some of them have made this clay box like three times and they keep falling apart. The clay gets so dry between the days they are here and gone that there's almost no point to putting the stupid things together after a while.
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