Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Reflecting on the first 9 weeks...

Here are my reflections on the first nine weeks written at Starbucks on a beautiful day. 

            As a teacher, I need to be clearer with giving directions. I feel that there were times that I wasn’t clear, which resulted in confusion/frustration on both ends of the spectrum. This is partly due to it being my first year and not having  set expectations from day 1. The students also need more reminders than what I’m giving them. They are showing me that they’re not spending the necessary time preparing at home for tests, completing homework. What can I do to boost this?  I think that I could make more of an effort to be in contact with parents. If a child receives lower than a ‘c’ on a test, I should ensure that the parent finds out with hopes that they will be on top of his/her student. I guess I assumed parents would keep up with the website, that students would write down assignments in their planners, etc., but I’ve realized that this isn’t the case. I do not want to hold my students’ hands, but I do have to remember that they are young and are just getting into the whole responsibility-thing. And I have to remember that I wasn’t the best at studying and keeping up with tests, but if my parents knew, then they wouldn’t let me live it down.

            I also need to be on top of making sure the students write in their planners. I really wasn’t on top of it, but I really need to be in order to cover my butt if parents say their students had no homework. I think that I could do it differently this nine weeks by having the students write down their homework for the whole week at the beginning of the week. I also need to remember to sign Tommy and Alec’s planner… so if they write it on Monday, this might help me better rather than attempting to remember every day.

            Next on the agenda… classroom management. Due to my ‘youthfulness’ and personality, I’m not the most threatening teacher. I’ve realized that I can manage my classes much easier through positive reinforcement and rewarding on-task behavior. I am blessed to not have any extreme discipline problems in any of my classes; it’s mostly talkative, hyper, or immature students, or lack of effort on assignments. Showing a ‘clip-of-the-week’ and allowing them to sit wherever they want on Fridays has been working well. Since I’m giving them time in class to start the vocabulary assignment, it might work well to not allow the students with zeroes on their homework to watch the clip. I could also pull the kids with names on the board outside… which could work if I’m standing at the door and having another student press ‘play’ on the computer. I hate to punish the entire class for a couple students unable to keep control of themselves, so we’ll try it this way and see how it goes.

            What about things I’ve done well? I feel like I’m so critical of my teaching that it’s hard to think about what was good. I’ve built rapport with the majority of my classes (sixth period is still a pain, but it’s not really their faults.) I’ve figured out a system of organization that, thus far, has worked for me. I’ve done a fair job of talking with parents (although I could make way more phone calls.) I think I’ve done an average job of incorporating technology into the majority of lesson plans. I’ve relied heavily on conversations with other teachers and have made it a point to seek out their wisdom/guidance/ideas, yet I’ve tried to figure things out on my own without seeming too needy. I’ve tried really hard to maintain a respectful manner towards all students, even if it’s super hard to love the obnoxious ones.

            Every morning I pray that I will be a reflection of Christ to them. I try to reflect on how I’ve treated them, how I’ve made them feel regardless of their stupid actions. They need a leader, an encourager, someone who can point them in the right direction lovingly. Have I done this? Have I been a positive example at all times? In the future, they won’t remember learning about genre, sentence types, or vocabulary tests. They won’t recall creating a figurative language booklet, reading AR books, or bi-weekly trips to the library. What they will remember is this: how did I make them feel? Did I belittle them, use too much sarcasm, make them feel incompetent, or did I admit my mistakes, talk to them like a stern but loving parent, encourage them on the little things? I hope they will remember me as a positive teacher, because with my own experience I feel like they were few and far between. 

I'm watching some show at 10:30 about a family who sold their house and moved into an RV to travel the country. I'm fascinated! I would love to travel all fifty states with my future kiddos. I guess I'm still up because I've been planning for tomorrow. The 9 weeks just ended and it's on to a new elective class. There are many things I could have done way better, so I want to make sure I get it right this time. I feel like I didn't put enough time into the class, but came up with last-minute activities to pass the days. I liked the kids, but I didn't give them enough to do, so they were hard to manage. I hope that the class meant something (anything?) to them.... but I know that I can do a lot more for this nine weeks. Teen leadership provides an awesome opportunity to challenge and stretch the kids in ways that could be done with a youth group. If anything, I hope they feel that I respect and will grow to love them as individuals.

Um... let's see what else. I had to scrape ice off the windshield this morning! Ridiculous. Oh, and back to the whining part; I feel like I could be doing so much more... like my lesson plans could be so much better. What if my teaching sucks? What if they're not learning enough because I'm not preparing them well? I wish more could be done, but then again, I'm staying super late at school and planning when I come home. While I want to pour everything I have into it, I'm also married and I need some time to be revitalized, both individually and through spending time with my husband. I don't want to get burnt out my first year! I'm realizing that at the end of the day I need to prioritize what needs to get done, then save the rest for the next day. There's no way I can get everything done, even with a planning day (I did grading for five hours and no planning!) 

Well anyways, I have Friday off due to an 'illness.' Think 'mental health' day. Gotta go to sleep now.