AuburnChick's Adventures

Week 35 of teaching found four of my classes coasting.

Well, not really, but because I’ve assigned some fairly large projects, I am giving my students time during class to work on their assignments.  This is also giving them time to ask me questions and for me to provide feedback and more concise instruction.

So, on Monday, my students found this…

A lot of my students have been sick lately, so the looser format is working well for everyone.  Students know what they need to do, so I’m letting them manage themselves, within certain parameters, of course.

Meanwhile, my 6th graders worked on grammar…

Grammar is like math, only for English teachers who cannot and will not willingly do math.  For me, parts of speech fit together like pieces of a word problem for math geniuses.

Tuesday was much of the same, however my 6th graders dug deeper into nouns…

We even managed to get in a mini lesson on verbs!  These students are extremely bright and so much fun to teach.

On Wednesday, my high school classes had the fourth of five Seventeen Second Miracle discussions.  Their interpretations of events in the book are very enlightening, and I love hearing them apply the lessons to real life.  I am also enjoying hearing them critique the book.  With the varied interests represented by my students, I find it interesting to hear which chapters they connect to and why.

On Thursday, I administered vocabulary tests.  Ahhh…I love these days.  I combined my first and second periods into one class so that I could attend Rooster’s academic awards ceremony (thank you, Principal, for allowing me to rearrange my teaching schedule!).

I returned in time for my 6th grade class; however, all but one of my students were participating in a basketball shoot-out competition.  My lone student did not want to watch, so we stayed in the classroom, where he read all period.  All-in-all, it was a quiet day.

On Friday, we returned to the normal routine, and my high school students worked feverishly on their research projects.  My 9th graders had spent the week reading The Seventeen Second Miracle and working on their discussion questions.  Many of the students in this class procrastinate, and they have complained mightily about all of the work they are having to do, so I’ve been giving them class time so that they have no excuses for not completing their work.  We’ll see if it pays off.

Besides all of the routine classwork, I had the pleasure of conducting several parent-teacher conferences this week.  It is my goal to meet with all of my students’ parents.

There were some interesting exchanges.

I tried to put myself in the parents’ shoes.  After all, I do still have a child in high school, so I know what it’s like to want feedback from teachers.

Let me tell you that being a teacher giving the feedback is completely different.

Sometimes, there’s no way to sugar-coat information that is difficult to deliver.

Parents get defensive, and while I realize that this is a natural response, it can be hard to respond to the comments that come out of that defense mechanism.

One thing I have learned from both being a parent and now being a teacher is that no child is perfect, though we, as parents, would like to think that our little “Johnnys” never do anything wrong.  As parents, we need to remember that our children’s behavior affects not just our children but all of those around them.

My job as a teacher is to figure out how to meet each student’s needs individually and collectively.  I cannot allow students’ misbehavior and refusal to participate in the learning process to affect those in the classroom who do care and want to learn.

This is easier said than done.

I walked away from a couple of the conferences feeling down.  I did a lot of introspection, and I realized that in the big issues, I was right and stood my ground justly.  However, I also realized that it is the small things that I need to work on…the small exchanges that occur during class…things like that.

For a rookie instructor, these lessons can be very painful and make one doubt himself or herself.

Still, I know that God has called me to this profession.  I know that self reflection is part of the process that will make me a great teacher one day.

And so time continues to march on.

I have two more instructional weeks left.

I, like my students, am eager to finish up and finish strong.

Filed under: Teaching | Tagged: teaching |