OK, I'm not gonna lie. Around this time, the honeymoon period between students and teacher is completely gone. And we just look at each other angrily. And I get frustrated with them. Here they are... sitting there... trying their best to do absolutely nothing.
Today is the Monday before the Monday before the first Monday of break. There's pretty much nothing good about this day. I came back from a wonderful weekend vacation from Orlando where I spent Sunday playing mini-golf, eating a 2 hour long breakfast al fresco, and taking a nice swim in the pool. Twenty four hours later: a group of tired teens who hate me. First period did not go well. I dreaded third period. They usually give less effort than my first period, but I decided to try something differently this time. Another teacher reminded me, "It's that time of year. Students are tired and don't want to try. Teachers are tired and don't want to try." I realized how much I had been dropping the ball recently... with grading, with lesson planning, with creating a warm classroom environment. It's no surprise that students would feel the same way in early December. I started third period differently- with empathy. "I know how stressed you've been these past couple weeks. The semester has been grinding. I get it. I want us to be learning today but I also don't want it to feel like there's so much pressure. We're going to go over some things today. Some of you may want to work with me to learn the pre-skills. Others of you will want to try some problems with groups you choose. I don't want this to feel overwhelming." I responded to off task behavior more positively, laughed more, joked around more... The class wasn't perfect, but students did a hell of a lot more than the first period class, and there was so much more positive energy. I had several students goofing off, but I also had 3 students who chose to work with me over their friends so they could feel caught up. I had students teaching other students; some working alone; and some in larger groups. At least for that class, my attitude and my response to them made a LOT of difference. Students are people too (duh).
0 Comments
|
ms. eugooglesmathematics teacher Archives
September 2016
Categories
All
|