Day 2 of my teacher life week
Tuesday, March 21, 2017
Before School 7:10 – 8:00
I finish up the TDQs for today and make copies of them along with the first three pages of the story we are reading, “Everyday Use.”
First Period English 2 Inclusion – 8:00 – 9:30
Four students are absent, again. Different kids today, but having four people out of a 14 person class absent most days is frustrating. I hand make up work to one student and tell her to read it and do it, but to go ahead and jump into today’s lesson because she will be fine. I tell kids to put their phones away and take off hats as announcements begin. Let’s don’t even talk about cell phones. I’m sure all of you have ideas/comments about this issue. It’s a big one and never ending. We read SSR and record pages. A new student comes in tardy. She didn’t know when her bus got to her house. I help her select a book for SSR. She tells me about a few she liked and I pull Evermore and Beautiful Creatures based on her interests. I read the backs of them with her and she seems super pumped to read Evermore. Success! I LOVE getting good books into kids’ hands. Two kids comment about their books and it’s cool to hear them share. I read lines 1-100 of the story to them. We think aloud and share thoughts as we read. I stop here and there to verbally check their understanding, clarify any misunderstandings, and help them visualize what’s happening in the story. I put a plot diagram up on the board and we talk about the structure of the text, pointing out how nothing has happened so much in the plot, but the narrator has shifted out to a dream….They get it pretty well and have good reaction and comments to the story. One girl even states that it would be terrible not to be able to look a white man in the eye, and we have a quick, unplanned conversation about the time period of the story and why this woman felt that way. I also tell them that people still feel that way now. We compare it to how a young, black male may feel intimidated or not free in certain situations today because of the color of his skin. I compare it to a situation in one of our classroom library books, All American Boys, in which a young black kid is beaten by a cop because the officer thought he stole something when he really didn’t.
I pass out the TDQs and let them work alone or with one other person. They all get right to work and go back into the text to answer questions. They are chill and on task. In inclusion classes, kids work at many different paces. Some kids finish and get iPads to play on vocabulary.com (we have a free trial of this site for the month of March and I really like it). Others use the rest of class to work. The ipads work pretty well, but many of the keyboards are switched to Chinese since that class was using them last, so we have to switch keyboards over and get kids logged in. I like vocabulary.com a lot, but unless the county/district pays for it next year, I don’t know that our school can get it. Also, all these cool websites are great, but you have to pay for kids every year. You can pay for vocab.com out of your own pocket, though…paying for it yourself is always an option.Vocabulary.com is $65 a month for 1 teacher and up to 200 students, which is what you would have to pay if you wanted to cover 6 classes in a year. That’s a total of $650. Just so you know. I will let my district ELA coordinator know that I like the website and hope for the best. Anyway, this class goes well. All good.
2nd Period AP Literature 9:40 – 11:10
We finish watching Act 3 Scene 1 of Hamlet in the film. Then, we rearrange the room to look more like the theater setting which 3.2 will be set in. We assign parts for the entire scene and get kids placed where they need to be if they are acting. We read and act out the entire scene, including the dumb show. The kids get into their characters and react perfectly to all the shade Hamlet throws at Ophelia and his mom. They are all, “No he didn’t!” We talk, summarize, question, and interpret as we read. We watch 3.2 in the film. Tomorrow we’ll be taking a pause before we move on to the rest of Act 3.
3rd Period English 2 Inclusion 11:15 – 12:45
This class goes well. Same as first. The young man who wasn’t happy about his new seat comes up to me and asks to be moved to the back of a row (subtext: I don’t intend on doing any work at all unless you move me…). I think about it and let him move on the condition that he does his stinkin work, man!! He understands and agrees. He moves. We read SSR. One of my most fun students finished American Born Chinese and has promised to read a prose novel next, so we head over to the shelves. I ask him questions and he wants not-realistic, but not too long….I pull six books and he settles on Book 1 of Darren Shan’s new zombie series. It’s a really good choice. We read the same text and talk through it like first period. All is well and the kids contribute.
Where it starts to fall apart is when we begin working on the TDQs. These are questions that review what we read and that ask the students to Reread parts of the text for details and deeper ideas. Most kids get to work and do fine. They ask for help if they need it. I check in and rotate to keep an eye on all kids. One pair of young men are not getting going very fast. I’ve been over the directions several times, but they are just staring around. Long story short, all my kids finish this assignment by the bell except for these two and they are on my last nerve. At the bell (for lunch) I keep them and ask what’s up. One kid just stares around and the other says he’s just lazy and doesn’t see the point. I try to explain the point in about 500 different ways, but the conversation is one sided and I chew them out a bit and tell them they need to do their work. The one student who listens gets it but just is sticking by his laziness. I finally let them go to lunch but I am fired up about this. They are smart kids. Do the work man. I am supposed to be at my lunch PLC meeting right now but I forgot and was talking to those boys, so I head into the teacher workroom and blow off my steam with our literacy coach who is stationed there.
Lunch 12:45 – 1:25
We talk through what happened with the kids and she is better than a therapist!! Our literacy coach is amazing. This obviously wasn’t a scheduled conversation, but we work it out. A lot of my reaction to these boys’ laziness is on me. I don’t want to have any kids be that way in my class. I hate having to say, “fine…don’t do your work well and get a bad grade…” I am a little overwhelmed with lots of thoughts and feelings, and these two kids sort of just set off what was bubbling inside. We all know how something eventually sends you over the edge. I am reading standards and doing my National Board renewal. I internalize and blame myself for everything that doesn’t go perfectly in my classroom. I feel like I must be doing something wrong if this kid isn’t doing his work….but this is all overboard…I am doing well. The literacy coach assures me I am great and I feel better after our talk. Those kids’ behavior just flew all over me today…it happens.
Planning 1:30 – 3:00
I spend 30 minutes of my planning finishing up this therapy session with the literacy coach. My colleague in the social studies department comes to find me. We’ve got three kids who we work with during planning to try to get our school’s old news show Black Hawk Broadcasting back running. BHB sort of died a few years ago and we want to bring it back. We need to talk with an administrator about the possibilities for next year so we head to the office but she’s gone. We wander and look for her and talk about a plan. We find her and follow her down the hall as she preps for registration night. We make a plan to meet later on after registration and see. I clean up a bit and make a few notes about tomorrow.
After School 3:00 – 3:30
The kids come in from the bus and we have a birthday party viewing of Beauty and the Beast to get to today. My colleague’s son is in the same kindergarten class as my daughter, so they are both super pumped for us all to go to the movies. My colleague is selling prom tickets and needs to wrap the present she got. The kids and I run to get the gift and run to use library bulletin board paper to wrap the present. We head out for the movies!! SIDE NOTE – Half of the teachers have registration tonight from 3:20 to 7:20. And Thursday. I had registration last week on Tuesday and Thursday. Same schedule. For registration we make a 20 minute appointment with every parent/student in our homerooms. They come in and we discuss their graduation requirements and we sign them up online for next year’s classes. We compile all the paperwork and turn it all back in to guidance after Thursday’s session. Today I am happy to be going to the movies instead of registration!
Overall a better day, even with the little bit of drama.
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