Rain Hypothesis

We are studying Hypotheses, Scientific Theories and Natural Laws right now as a foundation for Biology. Here's my own for today:

If it rains, then my kids will go nuts.

I have tested this Hypothesis as of 3:50pm this afternoon and proved it to be valid. 20 minutes remaining in the day and I couldn't capture their attention for anything. I spoke with Lori, fellow science teacher, and she said that actually, that Hypothesis has already made it past Theory stage and is the "Natural Law" category.

Used to love when it rained while I was at work... now... (sigh)...

Survival of the Fittest

Yes, this is post #2 today... I meant to post this earlier this week...but I was too busy trying to survive.
I picked a biology title because, Hey, I teach biology.

First week is complete! I hung on for dear life this week, and survived. Planning to use this weekend to get ahead in lesson planning which will help a ton. I was up at work until at least 8 or 9 every day this week just trying to prepare for the next day. But I hear this is to be expected your first year teaching.

I see some of my kids every day (1st and 5th periods), and others every other day (2nd, 3rd, 4th). It's called a modified block or a hybrid block schedule. I've gotten to know my every day kids really well, and I am glad to have them every day because they are special and need lots of extra attention. I've got 2 classes of seniors which I absolutely LOVE. They are my favorite so far, there is such a huge difference between seniors and freshmen.

The only class I'm not sure I have my "bluff" in yet is B-day 3rd period - freshmen. They are really pushing me and requiring way more directives than the other 3 classes of freshmen. If you'd like: pray for me to be patient yet firm with them, and pray that I'd have wisdom in how to capture their attention and lead them to learn.


Thought I'd include a few final pics of how my classroom ended up. The full finished product.

The things on the windows are "word walls" which is where we write vocab and other high traffic words. It's a good thing to reference back to.

The tables are marked with colorful paper microscopes to differentiate each person's seating location.

The supplies are out on the desks at all times, and with good discussion, so far none of it has been taken.

These are Social Contracts: We discussed for a few minutes how we all want to be treated: Them by me, them by each other, and me by them. We came up with similar words, so we agreed and signed that we would treat each other this way. Notice the difference in how 1st and 5th filled it out... both freshmen classes...




And I hung them on the ceiling for a permanent reminder that we all agreed. :)

"I'm a Bad Kid"

Let me tell you about "Klopek". (name changed obviously)
Klopek is a kid I see everyday. Thursday he wouldn't write anything down or do as I asked him to do. When I informed him "Klopek, if you don't write this down, you can't study for your quiz which is tomorrow" he replied, "I don't care, I hate this class." To which I said, "why?" and he said, "Because you are mean." Interestingly, in the same class I had 2 other kids tell me I was the nicest teacher they had this year. So I tried no to take it to heart and wondered what else was going on in his life...

Friday, Klopek returns to class and we get ready for the quiz. I give him his paper and he just pushes it away, gets out a marker and starts to draw in his spiral. Another teacher/aide I have in the room comes to him and asks why he isn't work on his quiz, and he says he doesn't care. She tells him he'll get a zero, and again, he doesn't care. So I come to him quietly and ask him to step outside with me while the other teacher monitors the class. He mumbles under his breath "I don't wanna talk to you!" Here's our dialogue:

Me: Klopek, why aren't you working on your quiz
Klopek: Because I don't want to.
Me: You know you'll get a zero right?
Klopek: I don't care
Me: We can work together to improved and replace grades, but I can't do anything about a zero.
Klopek: I don't care, I hate this class!
Me: I can't make you like the class, I can only help you learn.
Klopek: I don't even like High School, I wanna drop out. I hate it here.
Me: Why do you hate it?
Klopek: Well, I got friends, yeah, I got friends. But I'm gonna get jumped, or "T-ed" or beat up.
Me: Who is going to beat you up, is someone threatening you?
Klopek: No, but they will. Everyone says I'm annoying.
Me: Ahh, I see, so you are preparing yourself for the worst. Well, I don't think you are annoying.
(he looks me in the eyes for the first time)
Klopek: Even my family doesn't like me, They think I'm a screw up.
Me: why?
Klopek: because I'm 14 and I'm on probation. I messed up. I'm a bad kid. They don't like me.
Me: Klopek, You aren't a bad kid. My brother is also on probation (I didn't bother with the in-law explanation, didn't figure it mattered), and he's not a bad kid. In fact We love him very much. He messed up too, but he's not a bad kid. And you aren't either. We gotta get you working on learning, because I know you are smart. And if you learn, you can begin to get out of the situation you are in, but you gotta try. Can you go try on that quiz for me please?
(again looks me in the eyes)
Klopek: But I wasn't paying attention when you were teaching. I'm not going to pass.
Me: Just do your best and we'll work with it from there.
Klopek: Ok (looks me in the eyes one more time and half smiles).

He goes in and works on the quiz. I haven't graded it yet, but we'll see. But that conversation alone, Friday at 3:15 PM after a very long week of Setting Rules, Boundaries, Procedures, Lines, Expectations and teaching as best as I could - That conversation made it worth it.

First Day and Flowers

Today was my first day. I did as I was told and hit the procedures/rules hard, and will continue to review and revisit as needed. I hope to model teaching after my sister-in-law Stephanie's parenting: clear boundaries and expectations, patience, and deliberate training. We'll see.

My First 2 classes were filled with Freshmen who were terrified. It was funny to realize they were more nervous than I was! My 4th period was seniors who knew the drill, but they made me laugh. I had them working in groups on something and one guy starts yelling/conversating across the room to another guy... I said "Hunter, you are working in groups right now." to which he replies, "Miss, I choose him to be my group."  I gave him "the look" as I've been instructed to do, but inside I was laughing. I quickly informed him that his table is his group.

Then there was 5th period. This one will be interesting - seeing as there was almost a fight today on the first day. Fortunately I have a wonderful co-teacher in the room to help with the kids who need some extra guidance.

During 5th period I received these! My sweet sweet mother was so nice to send them to me today. And of course, all my kids said, "Miss, who day from?" and one replied "Mmmmm, bettah be her husband..." haha. I let them know, my loving mother sent them.

Is it a Touch Lamp?

Progress!

This week I have been in New Teacher training all week. I gotta say, Hal Bowman (aside from being a Tech Alum) was a very inspiring speaker. I was captivated and in tears by the end of the day. That was fabulous.














I have received all the "creds" - Parking Pass, Badge and Keys.
(Names of People and Locations will be changed to protect the innocent... haha)

And we've made progress in my room! It's looking really good now. All the green paint is gone off of the windows on one wall. And you can see the file cabinet that was previously tan and located by the chalkboard in the prior post is now black and next to my desk.

The desks are arranged with basic supplies available. This will hopefully cut down on the excuse for not doing work... "Miss, I don't have a pen." And on the back wall to the right are 3 calendars... this is where I will write assignments for students who miss. (I'll have basically 3 different types of classes, 2 of each - making 6 total classes)
This will cut down on 1) traffic to me and my desk and 2) the question "did we do anything yesterday" or "did I miss anything". They can just go look.

The center island is all black now. The chalkboards are still green. I'm going to try to get Maintenance to instill one more White board for me, and that top corner above the cabinet I think I will turn into a type of bulletin board. Maybe get some cheesey inspirational poster... or not.





But you might be asking yourself, "why is this post titled 'Is it a Touch Lamp?'?" I'll tell you.

While I was cleaning out a rats nest left behind by the previous teacher, I found this lamp. I studied it for a good ten minutes: "how does it work?" I thought to myself as I looked for a switch on the head, the chord, the inside, the underneath, everywhere. I started to put it in the trash saying to Jeff - "this lamp has no on switch, that's stupid." To which he brilliantly (no pun intended) says, "Is it a Touch Lamp?"

Sure enough. I never thought to plug it in and try that. DUH!

Getting My Class Ready

So I'm working on getting my class ready: E102. When I came in I thought, good grief, no one has showed this room love since 1987, how can kids learn in this environment?! But, I'm trying not to spend too much money in the process. This is the back wall...

Robyn had a great idea to add a blackboard to it, so with some paint, trim and an awesome husband...

This was the front area... yes, that is faux marble adhesive. gross. 

I peeled the sticky marble off the pole and under the TV and off the teaching island to the left of the photo and painted all three black. Jeff suggested adding chalkboard paint to the wood under the TV so I can write the date and other messages. Cute idea. Way to go Babe. 

And the desks... in almost every class room they look like this.

But I rearranged them with Robyn's help... we are going to try this. Supposedly with good classroom management, group and partner learning is the best. We'll see about the class management.

Still a lot to do. Gotta get the green paint off the glass on one of the walls. Not sure who thought that would be a good idea??? and there's still lots of things to go through, rearrange, take down, put up, etc. But we'll get there. Class starts August 23rd!