Second Year Retrospective (Part 2)

The year began and I got to meet my babies. While I am not yet a parent, I think of teaching as a similar experiences in some ways. You don't really know who your students are going to be or what they are going to be like. But you have to try your best to accept them for who they are, love them, and help them to grow.

I was very lucky this year in that most of my students were actually quite likeable. And I was doubly lucky in that I had small classes, so I got to spend a lot more time getting to know my students.

On A days (7th grade), periods 1 and 3 had only 6 students each. 4th period had about 10. On B Days (8th grade), period 5 had about 8 students, period 6 had 8 as well, and period 8 had about 12 students. Yes, I know, these are rediculously small classes and I probably will not have classes of this size again.

It was an incredible opportunity as a second year teacher. This gave me a lot more energy to spend on other matters besides classroom management. To be honest classroom management was not too difficult this year. I learned my first year that it is best to clamp down on any negative behavior early on. And when it started, I did clamp down relatively effectively. By explaining in stern language (I've developed a much more stern way of talking when I want it) what was not appropriate and by calling home incessantly to inform parents (again with stern language) that their child's behavior was completely unnacceptable. While I did have to do this with my small classes, I did not have as many students in my classes that were prone to disrupt the class (as I did my first year). Hence, I did not expend nearly as much energy disciplining students.

I had some positive behavior intervention systems in place and ready to go. I started out with one whole class incentive strategy. Each period had it's own "word poster," which was just a bubble word hung on the front wall. Whenever the class was on task, I would fill in part of the word, and once it was complete, the class earned a class party. I only went through it once though, because I realized that it was not necessary. I am of the opinion that it is best for students to self-motivate as much as possible. For the most part, my students did the work on their own.

I only had one class (my fourth period 7th graders) that gave me any trouble this year. There were a few problem students in the class - two in particular. And they definitely through a bit of a wrench into things. I was able to clamp down on them, but to be honest, I could have expended more energy in getting them locked down. You really have to be vigilant. However, I found that for most of the year, my fourth period class often got more done than my other 7th grade classes. I think this is partly because I was harder on them. Still, when I have problem students like the two I had in that class in the future, I hope to work more on getting them under control and keeping them that way (with different intervention strategies).

But the rest of my classes were truly a dream. They were enthusiastic about learning and they produced excellent work. I really got to develop some excellent lessons and strategies for keeping my students engaged. I hope to use these lesson strategies and further implement my classroom management strategies for next year when I am likely to have larger classes. It feels great to have another year of lesson planning behind me, which I think will make next year that much easier.

Second Year Retrospective (Part I)

The school year will be over this Thursday and it has been quite a ride.

I started out last August not being sure exactly what I would be teaching. In fact, the administration did not think they were going to have me on staff, so they had not worked me into the schedule. This ended up presenting an interesting opportunity: they asked me what I wanted to do.

I debated about the different possibilities, but decided on an option that would benefit the two other social studies teachers as well as myself. There was one 7th grade social studies teacher and one 8th grade social studies teacher already with full schedules (we had a very small 6th grade class this year and they just had one teacher that taught them each academic subject). I suggested to the other teachers and the administration that I split up classes with the 7th grade teachers on A days and with the 8th grade teacher on B days. We have block scheduling that alternates every day. Periods 1-4 are on A days and 5-8 on B days (85 minutes each). The administration liked this because it would be very easy to change the schedule. And the other teachers liked it because they would have small classes every other day. I liked it because I would have small classes, even though I'd have an extra class to prepare to compared with the other social studies teachers. Actually, this was also a benefit because I was able to get experience teaching two different classes.

So that is how things began. I would teach 7th grade Ancient World History and 8th grade early U.S. History. These were two incredibly interesting subjects to teach. And we had excellent new textbooks for each class as well. I was ready to go.

Did you miss the iRack?

If so, you can check it out here. :)

Roller Rink Fun

I didn't blog about this before, but last Thursday I went to the roller skating rink with my 8th graders and the 8th grade teachers. It was a blast.

We took the metro there (we're near Benning Road station and the rink was near Naylor Road on the green line). The name of the place is Delight Skate N Palace. And the address is 3132 Branch Ave, Temple Hills, MD 20748. The number I found online is 301-630-6150.

So traveling places is the toughest part, but it so cool being near a metro, since there are so many cool places you can go using public transit. Apparently you can even take public transit (metro to Largo Town Center and then a bus) to Six Flags. I feel like you could do a good science trip there and a reward field trip, of course. Anyhow, next year.

But we got the kids to the roller rink safely and we strapped on our skates (most of the teachers joined in on the fun. It was basically pop-hip-hop heaven or hell depending on who you ask. Personally, I've grown accustomed to the inner-city middle school musical selection, so I was into it.

It had been about 10 years since I went roller skating (since around the time I was in middle school as a student myself), so I warmed up a bit outside the rink. But once I got out there, I have to say that roller skating is pretty much like riding a bike. I can't say I was doing tricks or skating backwards, but I held my own. I was proud to not fall once.

The kids had a great time it seemed and it was definitely a good idea - highly recommended. I also enjoyed being able to hang out with some of my fellow teachers.

We got the kids back safely too, without much trouble. I am often amazed at how well behaved my students are outside of the school -generally much better than they are in the school. I was talking about why that may be with a fellow teacher and we thought it could have something to do with how they are not real sure how adults they don't know will react to what they know is bad behavior. Sort of like how students are often very timid the first week or so in your classroom when they're not sure how you'll react to them misbehaving. Anyhow, just a thought.

Maybe they're also just grateful to be out of the building and don't want to mess it up. Anyhow, I've been proud of my students on every field trip I've been on with them.

ayo

I highly recommend this recent blog post about technology from a contributer to OpenLeft.org. You can watch a video from a recent tech convention and the blogger provides a nice summation of the video.

Basically, the video is of Raymond Kurzweil, who is described as a "futurist." He believes that technologicy evolves exponentially and that technology will rapidly develop in the next 30 years. For one, nanotechnology will allow solar power to meet most if not all of our energy needs (not sure about airplanes though?) and technology will also blend with humans to help us live longer.

All very intriguing. It will be interesting to see what happens...

NYC

This weekend I had a nice break from it all. I bussed up to NYC for Memorial Day weekend to hang out with some friends from Macalester College.

I stayed in Brooklyn and we got up to lots of trouble.

We caught the last few innings of the Yankees beating the Mariners. It was cool to be in the "house that Ruth built," since this is the last year the Yankees will spend in the Stadium. The new one looks to be very far developed already and is right next to the old one. It looks to be a fitting stadium for the city that is our day's embodiment of the Roman Empire.

Afterwards we headed to the Met in Central park. It is always amazing and it was especially nice to have a beer in the rooftop sculpture garden overlooking the park.

We also went to the Brooklyn Museum of Art and saw the Murakami exhibit. He is a Japanese artist and quite wild. He did the album cover for Kanye West - a sort of hybrid form of art that I think is most similar to Japanese Manga and anime art. You can look him up, though I caution that some of his work is explicit. He also does Louis Vuitton bags.

And of course the nights in the city were a great time, but I won't go too far into them here. I am a big fan of Studio B in Brooklyn.

It was good to get away for the weekend.

Fresh Start

Here goes the blog...

I teach social studies to middle schoolers in Washington, DC. It's wild and I love it.

I plan to share insights on teaching in the city, keeping my kids engaged, community organizing, and politics in general.

Today I had an excellent field trip to four museums downtown - a whirlwind tour:

1) National Museum of African Art

2) Lunch at the Air & Space Museum

3) National Museum of the American Indian

4) National Gallery of Art

5) Back to the Air and Space Museum because that's my students' favorite.

I had ten 8th graders on the grip. I bought these mini-clipboards (1.39 at Staples) and had a little worksheet packet for them to do (I used "landscape" format, two columns, and then cut the pages in half so the pages would fit on the mini-clipboard). For each exhibit we went to, they just had to find one thing they were interested in and and answer some subjective questions. I just wanted to have something to get them to think about, but mostly I wanted them to just enjoy looking at things.

And they loved it. They thanked me many times throughout the day and let me know they were having a great time. I had brought 10 students that had done very well for me this year and the other 8th grade social studies teacher took my students that did not come along. Anyhow, it made for a great day for all that went.