Getting Settled

The marble jars kind of make me feel like a headmaster at Hogwarts - these are the house points.

I have been a certified teacher for seven days. Seven days! I had some intense anxiety problems during summer school, so I’m surprised with how well I have handled the first days/week of school. Have they been great teaching days? Not by a long shot. But I am making it through each day pretty much in one piece without moments panic or prolonged nausea. (Thank goodness! That got old real quick.) 

I think my biggest disappoint this week were my lesson plans and lack of diversity. Our principal is requiring we turn in two weeks worth of lesson plans at a time and without much previous material to draw on, my lesson plans were incredibly un-detailed. I’m also working through a grammar unit, so most days are notes-intensive and are bound to end with a worksheet. I really don’t know how to make this unit more fun for the students. I’ve also found I’m not the best at explaining aspects of my subject. How do you teach kids to write and to think about a reading? I'm sure there was a time when I didn’t know how to do either of those things, but I can’t specifically recall what my teachers did to help me learn how. Generally, everything is somewhat disorganized and under-taught, but I think that’s fairly normal as a first year teacher.

I also regret doing interactive notebooks. So many kids were missing during the first several days, that they missed how to set up the notebooks and I don’t have time to catch them up during class. On top of that, most of the students seem really confused by the procedure of titling notes and recording the title and page numbers in the table of contents pages. The amount of times I repeat myself giving instructions for the interactive notebooks is driving me crazy. And to top it off, I’ve been so inconsistent with how they add notes to their interactive notebooks that it’s really only my fault they don’t understand the procedure. Following procedures in general, has been an issue. For instance, they can recite the procedure for entering the classroom, but they don’t actually practice it without constant reminders. It’s like none of these routines (interactive notebooks and otherwise) actually stick with most of my students.

As I prepare for next week, I know now to slow down the pace of my classes. I originally planned entire periods of note taking. After my second period class nearly revolted (I’m being a little melodramatic here) on Tuesday, I realized I must break up the periods of note taking during my grammar unit. I also need to diversify my lessons, maybe spending part the week on grammar, part of the week on reading and writing. I also want better-planned lessons so that I can have a more structured and engaged classroom; although, that might be a long-term goal. I also need to seriously work on consistency in procedures and enforcing classroom expectations so that students actually do as they are expected.

My biggest management issue this week has been all the talking. Nearly every student has talked out-of-turn in class and I feel ridiculous handing out consequences for a whispered comment here or there (not to mention, those whispered comments are really difficult to pinpoint). My fifth period has the worst talking problem and it is also my largest class. They are constantly shouting out answers and questions, often multiple students at the same time. I’m trying to be consistent with assigning consequences, but with so many students talking at once, it becomes difficult to address that many students individually. I have reached out to the principal for advice on the situation and I know I have his support in dealing with student behavior. I’ve also been in contact with two parents/guardians (I can’t get into the school’s electronic system and have no parent phone numbers at this point, as well as several other technology problems) and that has helped. In the following weeks, I will try to be as consistent as possible and I will start to have a class-wide punishments available if the majority of the class is talking/causing disruptions.

Aside from the management issues I’ve already mentioned, the kids have been better behaved than I expected. Based on the roles plays we were put through, I kind of expected my classrooms to have one behavioral problem after another until I was either ready to snap or to cry. I’m incredibly thankful that only talking and the occasional attitude have been my biggest issues so far. Of course, this is only the very beginning of the school year and not an all-revealing glimpse into future behaviors.

I also knew I was teaching at a small school, but it did not occur to me how many overlapping students I might have in one day. As it stands, I have five students in both English III and English IV (either for remedial or early graduation purposes) and quite a few more in one of the core English classes and Creative Writing. This means I can’t use the same lesson, or even do similar things, without it being repetitive for the students who have me twice a day. And that has been incredibly frustrating for both my students and me. We also don’t have any honors classes in the English department, so all my advance students have been sitting in class, bored out of their minds as I try to keep the struggling students from falling too far behind. It’s incredibly obvious to me how important differentiation is in the classroom, but it is challenging to incorporate when you’re trying to make sure you have all the materials you need for three separate classes, let alone three different ability levels within each of those classes.

The biggest irony of my first seven days happened on day one. At the very end of eighth period, I had a girl raise her hand and wave me over to her desk. She pointed at a note she had written. She was letting me know she needed to use the restroom because she was five and a half month pregnant and therefore, needed to go to the bathroom frequently. I’m still under the general opinion that role plays went a little overboard at times, so of course, I have a literal role play moment on my very first day of school. I let her know that we only had about four minutes left of class and that pretty much took care of the whole situation. When asked if she should bring in some kind of doctor’s note so that she could use the bathroom as needed throughout the day, I advised her that it might help, but that she could always ask the principal.

The drives to and from school are incredibly scenic and are a good start and end to my day.