It's finally here! The first day of school. Even though I felt like there was so much more I wanted to have set up before school started, mentally and emotionally I felt so much better than last year. Thinking about some of my experiences, all I could think was, "Hey, I've survived this before. I've survived when it was really hard and the students hated me and I had to throw out my curriculum and start over and...and...and.... I can totally do this again." And I did. It felt great.
First period I had fun with trying to make my class sound really boring (had a few kids from last year that used to ditch and walk out a lot). It was hilarious. Had one student walk out after about 30 minutes. Kept asking every 2 minutes if he could go to the bathroom, then to the nurse, etc. Just trying to get out of class. Didn't feel bad when I found out he got in trouble for walking out of his second period class as well.
The rest of the day continued to be a pleasant surprise. I went over with my students what the expectations of the class were along with giving them a few options on what to work on for the rest of the class period. 1. Write about what they did this summer. 2. Draw about what they did this summer. 3. Help work on the window decoration. (This year I'm doing "stained glass" out of black butcher paper and colored tissue paper). Everyone chose something. Many were happy working on the windows. I was happy to see them working. Together. There are those who think these kids are not capable of working well with others. I beg to differ.
Class expectation I am most excited about: In order to get a pass to the restroom, they have to give me a cell phone or a shoe as collateral. If they don't come back in a reasonable amount of time I keep it until the end of the day. They laughed then realized I was serious. I laughed when they actually agreed to it. Other teachers think it's genius. I think I'm a crazy genius. Mwahahahaha.
No comments:
Post a Comment