I have been way too grumpy this year. We have a new curriculum that has me scrambling daily trying to find the target I am teaching toward. There is no textbook. You don't teach to the book, but it sure helps to provide structure and problems. So, I have to find or create worksheets everyday, because the don't want to copy anything off the board - and my students don't do that very well anyway.
I did say they were in high school, didn't I?
I have 2-5 in every class who do not want to be in school and really don't care what they do to interfere with everything. So they talk loudly. They throw things. They wander around the room. And I get louder. And grumpier.
I had an epiphany this week. I am doing all of the work, except for the few who want to learn. And I decided, for the ones I mentioned above who don't care, I will worry about their grade the first day of preplanning.
We have time set aside every week to recover their grade. To relearn, not do grade recovery. And then to recover the grade. I have made it too easy - in effect grade recovery. So, I have told them that this is how we are recovering this semester.
- Starters. I didn't let them recover these, just gave them a 60. This is a quiz grade every 2 weeks to raise their grade. Should be an easy 100 as it is on the board, but as I said above, they don't copy well. Recovery is now "Here's a sheet with the 10 things we did for starters - work them on your own sheet of paper and turn them in."
- I have one young man who will write down NOTHING. I have told him I will not sign a bathroom pass unless he writes down the day's starter. Friday's was 5 numbers. Not working them out, just 5 numbers. (2*5*29*31 and 7!) and he wouldn't do it. Documentation time.
- Recovery for a test or quiz is this: go back to your notebook (I gave them one and write notes on the board that they have to copy. I keep 2 notebooks of these notes that they can copy as well, because this is a test grade at the end of the semester. And I write the notes as I would have as a student - probably a college student not a high school freshman, but still.)
- I had them glue cool pages in their books 1st semester - we are doing more writing, less gluing this semester.
I am writing more up and shipping them out. In this endeavor, their vocabulary never lets me down.
And there have been some instant rewards. One student can be a pain, but she makes me laugh, and I have been returning the favor. I had a rash of desks being turned over. I'd turn around, and 1 or 2 desks would be flipped. I thought one particular boy was doing it but I couldn't catch him. The one day, while I was working with him at the board, I turned around and 4 desks were flipped over and only 2 girls could have done it - and I KNEW which one it was - she had just left for the bathroom. I straightened the desks - and flipped hers - rather than doing a write up. She came back - and laughed!! And no more desk have gone on their side.
Yesterday, during a test, while I was watching the kids, I look up to see her holding a notebook in front of her, peering at me over the top, just her eyes visible. I reached behind me and got a bathroom pass(about an eighth of a sheet of recycled paper for them to write on as a pass), held it in front of my face, and peered at her over the top. (OK, juvenile and distracting). She laughed - and no one else got it.
A boy who has been a pain - bright but disruptive - asked me earlier this week if he could spend his class time in another class - he had said he was moving this week (and he did) so I agreed. He came in his last day, walked across the room, and hugged me.
A boy from last year - my first student from the earliest posts - came to see me this week and I chewed him out for the behavior that I hear about in his other classes - and he hugged me.
But the kicker is a girl who argues and talks constantly in my class. I have an upcoming meeting with her mother, and I could hear her saying she couldn't wait (she keeps telling me her mother will take care of me - ok). I asked her how she'd done on another teacher's test the day before - she hadn't finished it. Did she have any questions, so we worked a page of problems. She still had 20 minutes after my test (which tells me how she did on mine) so she went to ask the teacher if she could finish the test. Teacher had already graded them, students had to come in that morning to finish. "I couldn't hear because there was too much talking and I missed it - now I have to recover and it'll be hard" This is my point about her talking - she causes other people to miss things. Life is all about payback, but I think I am done with grumpy.
