It has been a LONG time since I posted one of these. This is mostly because 2nd semester of the school year kicked my butt. I have never been more exhausted in my life (and I thought finals week couldn't be beat). Hopefully, all of this year has made me a better teacher going into next year. I have certainly learned a lot.
1. Some lessons just have to be improvised. That's the way it works. I always wanted to be ahead of the game and write out detailed lesson plans for the week, but when the printer isn't working or the video won't play or you see a room full of blank faces, the whole week changes. It must. Trying to make a lesson work or wasting 15 minutes on technology malfunctions isn't serving the kids.
2. Middle school mean girls are still alive and well. I vividly remember the reminders about my appearance by other girls in my early teenage years. And they aren't exclusive to kids. If my hair was a mess, my clothes not "in style", or my makeup not done, they were the first to let me know. The big difference now is my self worth isn't tied to my appearance. And I tried my best to show my students that theirs shouldn't be either. I told them they were thoughtful or a good leader or hard-working. But every once in a while I just couldn't resist telling a 7th grader that I loved their shirt/hair/shoes to see their face brighten.
3. You have to pick your battles. Students often would say or do something just to get me off track or make me react. I played into it way more than I would like to admit. I learned that it is so important to shrug some things off in order to do the best for the most kids at that time. Often times a personal conversation later on does a whole lot more good than reprimanded that kid in front of the class anyway. Sometimes ignoring is enough too.
4. Make friends with the custodians. I spent way too many hours at my school, but the biggest benefit of this was the evening conversations I had with the custodians. Once I formed relationships with them, they were much more likely to take time to do extra tasks in my classroom or bring extra supplies.
5. Create routines. And follow through with them. I was terrible at this. One of my top priorities for next year and to really have a system for putting books away and handing papers out and borrowing pencils and using the pencil sharpener and signing out for the restroom and going to the library. These seems mundane, but without a clear, established system, chaos ensues.
6. Reflect. Some lessons succeed. Some fail. But I take note of both. What was it that triggered the success or the failure? How can I use this in my next lesson. Every day is connected to the last and I learned to take a moment to really think or even write these reflections down.
7. Laugh at yourself. I try to show my kids I am human too. When I misspell something on the board or say something ridiculous and would always stop and admit the mistake. I like that they saw I wasn't perfect. Sometimes I would use vocab words and write a silly story about me or the class and I swear they always did better on those tests.
8. I need to ask my students questions. At the end of the year, I asked students to write down one piece of advice for me. Of course, many said we should listen to music more or write less, but some had great ideas about new projects to do or extra puzzles to work on if they finished an assignment early. I also let my reading kids pick their own books based on genres they liked my last semester and I think they opened up a lot more when they had some choice.
9. I need to ask for help. I hate asking for help. I want to do it all myself. I feel like using others is a weakness. But others have more experience, materials, etc. and really helped my sanity whenever I took a chance and asked.
10. Organization is key. I always felt pretty organized when I was in school myself, but with over 100 kids every day, I misplaced piles of papers frequently. It is so important to have designated spots for everything. So, so important.
11. Parents are a great resource. I was terrified of parents coming into the year. I didn't know how to interact with them or what in the heck to say at conferences. I dreaded calling home. But I learned to the connections I made with parents served my students so well. I was able to get assistance for those students who couldn't manage to hand in homework assignments and got insight into how best to deal with disruptive behaviors. I was able to schedule more after school work time that students actually showed up to. Sometimes just the suggestion of a call home was enough to make a student think twice.
12. Celebrate the successes. I went to a workshop mid-school year with a teacher I worked with in a practicum last year. He asked how I was doing and it had been a long day. I sighed and said, "I'm learning." I'm sure he could see the exasperation and defeat on my face. He asked me to tell him one success I had had in the classroom. I honestly couldn't think of anything. I felt like such a failure. We were interrupted and I never answered the question, but in the weeks following, I kept asking myself the same question. What success did I have today/this week/this quarter? Even a minor thing like one student improving or one creative lesson helped me feel better.
No comments:
Post a Comment