A Garbage Man Told Me To Smile...

Last week, as I was walking to the subway, I passed a man who was bringing garbage into the walk in dumpster.  Just as I passed him I hear him say, “Smile, school’s over.  We’ll try this again sometime.”  I immediately tried to smile back and really laughed to myself.  It amused me because, with out knowing me, he sized me up right away.  I guess being a young white girl in a predominantly black neighborhood is a good indication that I don’t belong and I’m probably a teacher.  I guess he also figured that my grumpy/stressed face was due to having a long day with rowdy kids.  

He really hit the nail on the head.  That day and the day before were particularly stressful.  We had a teacher absent, and were going to have another one out in another day, so one of my breaks was gone.  I was thinking of what content I had to put on my tests that I was making for each subject for 2 grades and how I could fit them in time-wise due to standardized testing the week after and being unable to do content tests then.  The girls’ behaviors were not so good and just draining.  I was also trying to rush so I could meet a friend and make an early train home so I could have a life experience totally separate from work.  

I guess I’m not so good at hiding all these feelings on my face while trying to get home and away from work.  In reflection, it makes me sad to think that I can’t smile after a day of work.  I believe that I’m happy in my profession, and position of work, but if I don’t smile often, am I really happy?  I feel every day should make you smile once at least.  I think I do that when my students do something cute, funny, or achieve a personal success.  But shouldn’t the events of the whole day add up to be positive and not negative?  Maybe I’m not evaluating and assessing my day fairly.  One day I will have to sit down and make a list of the positives and negatives and see which column wins.  If I end with more negatives, then something has to change.  

Differentiation

Today I realized that I achieved differentiated instruction.  It’s something that I kind of overlook, but may kind of do with out knowing.  I know some of my lessons can reach different learners (ie: visual, auditory, kinesthetic), but another way emerged today. 

I gave a sheet in the math practice workbook to my 6^th grade students today so they could do more with putting decimals into fractions.  This allowed me to walk around and see how each individual was doing.  One student, who’s very bright, was way farther ahead of the others.  She completed the worksheet and got to the last 2 problems which had a combination of fractions and decimals that you had to put in order.  I didn’t really have an intention to do this part, but it occurred to me that it was something she could achieve.  I told her to either put them all into fractions or all into decimals and then order them.  She chose to put them into decimals and then she had to do the rest for homework.  She came in the next morning and said she wanted to show me.  She thought she put them in order but I realized that this skill wasn’t something she automatically knew.  I now know that I can have her look ahead and somewhat teach herself.  This is something that I’m going to look into because I have one or 2 more students that could be at this level.  Now I just have to work on differentiating for the lower level students. 

7^th and 8^th don’t exactly have this diversity.  Every student in those classes struggle with the material and I might only have to help the lowest students, which is something I work on anyway.  6^th grade seems to be my experimental group that I am really learning from. 

This differentiation makes me think of my own learning.  I am taking 2 graduate classes this semester and one I’m not a fan of and the other is pretty decent.  It could be the fact that I don’t like politics but I have some background in working with special ed.  In any case, I’ve found that the professor for politics is just not understandable to me.  Almost every class I wonder, “what was his point?”  He makes a powerpoint and usually reads off it and seems to make a statement or rhetorical question based on the slide.  I never really get his point, but others in the class sometimes can respond to him.  Sometimes I think it’s my lack of experience and knowledge of politics and other times I think it’s his teaching style.  It makes me reflect on my own teaching and I wonder, how many of my students just can’t learn from me and my style?  So again, how can I differentiate for my students?

A Case of the Mondays

I have found that out of all the days of the week, Mondays are the worst.  You would think Fridays would be, but for some reason my students find their energy for the start of the week.  This energy is not a good one.  I spend more time trying to get them to quiet and settle down, raise their hands, start and finish tasks, and just stop bouncing off the walls than I do teaching.  I guess it's the fact that they've had no structure for 2 days that the routine flies out the window.  

I have to create a new way to conquer this behavior.  I'm so sick of the phrases "stay in your seat," stop calling out," and "do this problem now."  I was thinking one solution might be to reward those doing the right thing.  I might make a spreadsheet or chart for each class where they can earn stickers for each day.  When they get 5 stickers they will get a prize (candy?).  If I have to correct them a student at all, that student will not get a sticker for the day.  My follow through will be most important here.

Any other suggestions for classroom behavior management?