I am officially on summer vacation! I have officially survived 177 170 (I took 7 days off this year) with my first group of students, seniors no less. I taught government & economics when I was technically a history emphasis in college, & received a D in the one econ class I did take. Everyone says their first year is the hardest, I sure hope they are right. I'm sure teaching seniors, in an inner city district, courses I didn't take a whole lot of classes for in college, didn't help either. So is there anything I would do differently next year? Absolutely! These are mostly based on me staying in the same district next year but dependent on what any new district might be like I would possibly still change how I handle certain situations there as well. These are in no particular order.
The Bathroom
-Students will be given 3 tickets at the beginning of the semester to use as bathroom passes. They will have to turn them into me to go. They can earn more throughout the semester by doing different tasks but once their tickets are gone that's it. No more going to the restroom for you.
-Students will be given 3 tickets at the beginning of the semester to use as bathroom passes. They will have to turn them into me to go. They can earn more throughout the semester by doing different tasks but once their tickets are gone that's it. No more going to the restroom for you.
-Students will also have to sign in & out when going to the bathroom. If you're gone for 10-20 minutes you're tardy...anything over 20, you're absent.
**Basically I'm sick of my door being a revolving door & kids being gone for 10+ minutes**
Electronics
None will be allowed, ever, for any reason.
None will be allowed, ever, for any reason.
-If I do see any form of electronics (headphones included) 1st offense it's mine until the end of the period, every consecutive offense it's going to the office & they can decide what to do from there.
**I was fairly lax on this because I really don't care if they use them during their work time. If music helps you work better than so be it. If you wanna waste your work time playing on your cell phone & get a 0 that's on you. It got way out of control though**
Other StuffThis next year students will be in Houses...think Harry Potter...each member of the house will have a certain job. They will work together in their teams to make sure that everyone is on task, getting work completed, & understanding what's going on. If someone is absent, it'll be someone's job to make sure they have the assignments in the binder for when they return. Each "house" will also earn/lose points based on how their team performs. ie. Tardies, work turned in on time, classroom behavior, etc. Not only will this make things 100x more organized & easier for me, it also makes the kids take ownership in what they're doing & gives them more responsibility.
**Basically my room felt like an unorganized cluster fuck most of the time**
Rules. We will spend the first week of school getting to know each other & going over rules. I will drill it into their heads as much as I possibly can & they will get to know everyone in their class.
**Apparently taking one day to go over expectations & getting to know each other isn't enough...even for seniors...***
Most importantly though, & this wasn't something I fully understood until I was sitting in my classroom without any of my seniors, crying, that despite the insane amount of back & forth I had with them throughout the year, I deeply care about them. It took me less than 24 hours to miss them & want them back into my classroom.
**Basically my room felt like an unorganized cluster fuck most of the time**
Rules. We will spend the first week of school getting to know each other & going over rules. I will drill it into their heads as much as I possibly can & they will get to know everyone in their class.
**Apparently taking one day to go over expectations & getting to know each other isn't enough...even for seniors...***
Most importantly though, & this wasn't something I fully understood until I was sitting in my classroom without any of my seniors, crying, that despite the insane amount of back & forth I had with them throughout the year, I deeply care about them. It took me less than 24 hours to miss them & want them back into my classroom.
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