A Second Week of Reflection

So Week 2 is over and done with. The past two weeks have been a rollercoaster ride of emotion. I learned even more this week than I thought I had learned last week. I’ve experienced more little victories and a few failures. But, most importantly, I left the building last night (before 7:30! Woo Hoo!) more in love with my job and what I am doing with my life.

I have noticed over the last week in a half that Miss History is not friendly with me. She is short in answering any questions, she is condescending to me in front of the students, and she is just not as warm with me as she was over the summer. We have no bells in the building, so it is up to our team to dismiss classes at the correct time. I know the times to dismiss, but when I look into Ms. Science’s classroom, she will still be teaching. I am terrified to stop instruction early because chaos would break out in my classroom, so I teach until the other teachers dismiss. More than once, Miss history will open my door in the middle of my instruction and yell, “Let’s go!” as her kids crowd around my door. I have told her repeatedly that I will not dismiss my kids until everyone is ready to dismiss. I don’t think she likes that.

Miss History also volunteered to host silent lunch in her classroom this week. That means she escorts all silent lunch kids to her room, and I bring her class and my class back after lunch. And they’re supposed to be silent in the halls. Students seen talking in the halls receive an automatic silent lunch. So I emailed her on Wednesday and suggested she might want to remind her lunch class of the consequences of talking in the halls, and she sends me a scathing email about how she is dealing with 25 students in silent lunch, so I should deal with the kids in the hall. She tells me to give them the concequence if they talk in the hall. Okay, no problem. So I assign 17 students silent lunch for talking in the hall. The next day, she is incredibly upset that she has so many students in silent lunch, so I offer to host SL with her — we can split up the kids. In front of our students, she says, “Go back to your lunch, StrangeNewTeacher (she called me by my first name). I can deal with this myself.” The kids just stared at us, and a few looked really shocked. I was mortified. I do not know how to deal with this situation.

I started teaching real content this week. My principal observed me on a day I had an awesome lesson — we were playing “Guess that Man!”, a gameshow-type introduction to the life and works of Nelson Mandela. The kids were engaged, I was having the time of my life, and my principal loved my lesson. The next day, Language Arts AP observed me while I was modeling think alouds with the students. Not quite as exciting, but a valuable lesson, nonetheless. Another positive review.

Students are beginning to behave the way I want them to — I have to remind myself it takes 21 days of doing something to make it a habit. Students have ben doing my procedures for 10 days. Many students are active participators, and there are a handful who haven’t started taking 7th grade seriously yet. 7th grade cirriculum is way more challenging than 6th grade’s, and students who coasted by last year will not be so successful this year. I have taken a quiz grade, 3 homework grades, and 2 class work/participation grades. All students did well on the quiz, but many have not turned in any homework or class work. This drops their grades down to Cs or lower. I emailed progress reports last night to parents. Hopefully, this will be the kick in the pants some of my students need.