I am a walker. Not that I go walking outside in this how many days of over 100 degree weather. I walk around the class as students are working. I ask questions about what they are writing/drawing/creating and I ask questions about their lives. Having them write, draw, and cut out pictures about things that interest them provides a lot of opportunities to interact with them.
Giving a classroom of boys glue and popsicle sticks is a fascinating situation. I told them I was not going to tell them how to construct the tops of their mobiles. They could build whatever they wanted to attach and hang their pictures from. "Can I build a house?" Of course you can. Go for it.
Back to last week's 5th period. I have most of the kids spread throughout the day in other classes. Second period I had one of my first classroom management victories with one of them. Student didn't want to do anything. He spent most of last week talking back to me and complaining, so I talked to him about it. He said he didn't want to do anything today. I let him know that I was going to write him up so I would have a record of his decision to refuse to work. "I'm not refusing to work, I just don't want to today. Maybe tomorrow." Okay, then I'll just write that down, so if there is a problem, we'll have a record that this is becoming a pattern. He saw me typing it up, and then I left him alone. I tried to ignore him while he started working a few minutes later. Don't want to draw too much attention to him actually cooperating. :)
More from the old 5th. Maybe I should refer to them as the O5. I think I may have referred to one girl who was loud, talked a lot (especially when I was talking), talked back, and sought attention. She was the one I think I referred to the other day as trying to "out gangsta" one of the boys in my class. I found out from some other teachers that they had a few, i.e. too many, classes together. I was working with her on a rewards system to help motivate her, and then yesterday I saw her schedule had been changed again and she was no longer in any of my classes. I was a little disappointed I would not have the opportunity to follow through. When I saw her leaving another class I said, "Hey, are you not in my class anymore?" "No, they changed my schedule again. They said they took me out because you couldn't handle me." Eek. Need to do more to stay on the counselor's good side. I know they were really splitting those two up. I told her that I was looking forward to having her back in my class when the time came. Today at the end of lunch my students were gathering at my table and I noticed she was sitting there. I asked if she was in my class now and she quietly said yes. She did not seem happy. She as now in my 4th, smallest, and quietest period. "Man this is boring, I don't know anybody here!" I tried so hard to contain my smile. Once she got started I went back and checked on her a few times. I asked her about her new class schedule and encouraged her as she totally focused on her project.
In 3rd, one of the O5 needed to be caught up (after ditching class a few days). I took advantage of when he was writing his poem--YES I DID JUST SAY THAT HE WAS WORKING!--to encourage him along and find out more about him. He always wears two gold chains, one with a cross. Last week I found out that one his mom gave him. The other came from his dad before he died. As he was working on coming up with ideas, I told him some things that I know about him, like that family is really important to him, as shown by the reminder he wears of them every day. Yes, students, I do listen and I do care.
Last week, my 6th were total rock stars. One O5er added and she's managed to take down half the class with her. Gloves are coming off tomorrow. And by that, I mean that I'm going to pull her aside and talk with her while everyone else is working. Hopefully the inertia will take over and the others who have started working will keep going when I let her back with them. It worked in 3rd...
And speaking of 3rd, the climber from yesterday. No, she's not an O5. I pulled her out to the hallway while everyone else got started. I talked to her about what happened, that her behavior was not acceptable, and that there needed to be a change. I let he know that she could sit at the table near the door until she finished the work from yesterday. Only then could she go sit with her friends. In the midst of going on about her "dog dying" she mentioned that there were a lot of changes in her life and she was sad that some of her friends had moved away. Now that I will believe. I told her I would sit with her until she finished. Finally she sat down at the table, and before I sat down had already written two more phrases. I let her talk to me as she wrote more, redirecting her when she got distracted, asking her questions and validating her when she was talking about things she was writing. She finished with a smile, went over to her friends, and they all kept working the rest of the class. Did I mention that her friends came up with some very creative ideas by the time she got there and that motivated her forward? Awesome.
If it's the last thing I do, I'm going to convince these students that someone cares about their success. And if I'm good at it, they will know I care. And if I'm really good at it, they will be the ones that care.
No comments:
Post a Comment