Week Three: August 28th to September 3rd

Sometimes I feel like a god over my classroom, and at other times I think that if God flies by the seat of his pants as much as I do, the whole world would have destroyed itself a long time ago.

Thursday was picture day and it caused such a disruption in my teaching plans. The kids needed to take a vocabulary test, but for an hour and a half there were groups of five or six students that were leaving at a time to get their picture taken. I didn’t know what to do, so I flipped the day around. We read Deathwatch and worked on our superhero writing project for most of the day. I was almost prepared to bump the vocabulary test to Friday but we were able to take it during the last ten minutes of class and I just decided not to correct the test together as we normally do.

This week I made a real effort toward giving each class no less than five minutes to clean up and put their binders away. It made a huge difference. Not only did I feel better about giving the kids plenty of time to clean up and collect their things, but I felt more organized and in control as a teacher.

I administered a pop quiz today and thought for a moment that my first period kids would wet themselves it caught them so off guard. By the time it reached sixth period, my students’ reactions had diminished. I’m sure they had been warned about the pop quiz by then. I’m also equally sure that none of them took advantage of their foreknowledge to prepare a little more for it. When I saw how much first period was struggling with their test, I waited until most of them looked finished and then gave them three minutes to search the resource section of their binders where they should have all of our class notes. If they found the answers in their binders, they could use it on the test. At the end of three minutes they shut their binders and passed their quizzes forward. Even though this wasn’t my original plan and doesn’t show as accurately what they know, I feel better about doing it this way since it will give them an idea of what the midterm will be like. It also will help them take things more seriously (I hope) and show them what they know and what they still need to study and review. I wonder if before the midterm I should take the time to teach a lesson on study skills.

Unfortunately, I’m still staying late at work. I’ve been able to make it home by 8pm on most nights, but I did pull a late night where I didn’t leave until midnight again. I feel very lucky, however, to have a husband who is very supportive. He makes sure I eat when I get home and makes sure that my stress meter stays at somewhat manageable levels.