I believe that I have developed my reputation as the Mama Duck of the third grade. There are 4 third grade teachers at my school, and 2 are male. Not to play on stereotypes, but the male teachers are not really the most loving toward the students. (Fun, sure! And of course they care about their students but not really big on the emotions.) The other female teacher is, well, how do I put it nicely, she is not really enjoying her job/students at the moment. I feel like I’ve begun to develop this reputation among the students in other classes as being the stern and strict teacher who is still very caring. I get a lot of hugs in the hallway from even the most hardened 8 year old males. I’m feeling like I am making progress with some of the most notorious 3rd grade boys. I am showing them that I am on their side, I am rooting for them, I want them to be successful, so I have better not ever catch them goofing off or being disrepectful. I hope that this connection can last with them.
I was very mean at first. I was strict and let no student get away with anything. I did not choose my battles, and I didn’t always like myself as a teacher. However, I think that has helped me out because I do have a class filled with students who are nearly always under control. I’m beginning to have more fun with my studnets because they can handle fun things. I even gave them an assignment that had them cut and glue today! Woohoo! I mean, it was a BIG deal for them. No way would I have tried a cutting/gluing assignment the first month of school for the sheer logisitical nightmare that it would become. My expectations were clear, they were high, and they are living up to them. I hope they see me as fair (I don’t always see me as fair). I hope they see me as somebody who they can talk to when they have problems, and who will also share in their successes. Maybe I would make a good school psychologist.
My students took most of their benchmark tests for this month. The school goal for math was 70% and my class average for math is a 69%! Considering that last months was a 55% I would say that we are making progress. I was literally jumping up and down in the computer lab today when the kids were showing me thier results. 6 of my students will be earning medals for getting 80% or higher on the tests. I belive that 21/25 studnets will be attending the benchmark boogie dance for getting 70% or higher on the tests or improving more than 20% percentage points this month.
I almost swore in front of my students. I came so super close to saying the f-bomb in front of them, but I caught myself a millisecond before it slipped my mouth. I was so caught off guard that the word was just there, ready to come out.
I wonder what would happen if I did use that word.
I hope I never find out.
Filed under: St. Louis, TFA, Teach For America | Tags: circus, Field Trips
According to a website, which allows you to type in your blog address and churns out an humiliating icon for you to display on your blog. No thank you, ma’am. I don’t need that kind of humiliation.
Not only is my blog poorly written, but I think it’s not funny. Not because funny things don’t happen, but because I just feel so stifled by all the *things* I have to do for my job, and all the pressure to remain anonymous that I don’t feel like I have to time to twist my daily events into amusing anecdotes for all my (4) readers.
So, let’s see… My class went on our first field trip of the year. We went to the circus, which was not my idea. It was last minute, and only somewhat organized. Being the mean teacher that I am, I wrote a big note on my whiteboard on Tuesday that said “Students who might not be going to the circus.” Through the week whenever students were not following directions, breaking rules or simply getting on my last nerve, I would write their name on the board. I wish we could do a field trip every week if simply for the fact that it was the perfect carrot to dangle over the heads of my students to get them to behave themselves. Well, it wasn’t really a carrot since my students wouldn’t eat vegetables if they were the last food on earth…more of a hypothetical bag of flaming hot cheetos. My students would climb mountains for a bag of hot cheetos. (Like this: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5394069 )
At the circus I was so nervous about losing one of the children, or having one of them wander out into the big ring with the ferocious tigers jumping through hoops of fire that it was hard to simply enjoy myself. It made the day pass quickly, the perfect end to an already shortened week (due to having Monday off for Veteran’s Day). I was annoyed by a few student’s whininess and constant need to pull on me and beg me to buy them cotton candy, snow cones or some random plastic light up sword.
I am planning a Thanksgiving dinner with just my husband, my cats and myself. I went shopping today and bought all the necessary ingredients for a full traditional feast. I think I was ripped off on the turkey. Never having purchased a turkey before, I’m not sure. I bought the smallest one that they had, a plump 8 pounder, and at that price I could have bought fillet mignon. I hope the dinner goes smoothly as it will be a complete waste of time and money if they food turns out crappy and we catch salmonella from the turkey (my biggest fear).
My plan for the long weekend coming up: Get X-mas cards ready to begin sending out, make Thanksgiving dinner, and begin the X-mas shopping for our ever expanding number of family members. In theory I will work on making lesson plans for upcoming weeks but Ha! Like that’s going to happen. Of course it would be the sensible thing to do. I can guarantee you that I will be smiling from ear to ear on Tuesday evening when I come back home from school and I am officially free for the next 5 days.
I did just learn that my great grandma is very ill, and may pass away within the next few days. My great grandma is 106 years old and has led a very full life, so there is not much hope that she will be able to pull through her illness. Then a few days later I learned that my great uncle is also ill and is likely going to die very soon as well. I may be planning a trip back up to MI sooner than expected.
PS – I just ran a spell check and the word “blog” is not in the spell check dictionary. I think that it should be added, quickly, as this is a blog website.
Since today was a holiday, and with thankgsiving coming up, I feel like November is going to be a breeze. Four days this week, then the weekend, then 2 days with my students, then a glorious 5-day weekend. I’m not sure if this is confirmed, but I have written in my planner that we have a professional development day on Friday the week after Thanksgiving. I feel like X-mas is almost here! The mythical but much talked about week off from work that everybody likes to talk about. I refuse to believe that it actually exists. I hear that teaching gets better after Christmas and it had better because I can’t keep it up like this much longer. I find myself thinking a lot about next year and starting fresh with a new bunch of students. I won’t make many of the same mistakes I made this year. While I love my current students I am eager to think about how much smoother next year will be.
I have my 6 year dating anniversary with my husband on December 2, which will be here before I know it. It is mind boggling to think that we have been together for that long.
We have SLCs tomorrow. Which…is a very fancy way of saying Conferences. We call them Student Learning Contracts, not grades, at my school. Well, all the teachers call them grades, but officially they are the Student Learning Contracts. I believe I printed out 700 pages for my SLCs this week. Each SLC is about 4 pages long, then I had to print out a detailed report for each student, which included every assignment in my gradebook and the grade each student received on that assignment. It is crazy.
I am nervous about the conferences. I don’t know how to deal with parents who might be angry. To be honest, I have fluffed up my grades so much at the urging of my admin that I doubt any parent will be upset. I am, however, preparing myself for next quarter when I plan to refuse to fluff. I am getting my documentation ready for my students and I feel like this upcoming quarter is going to be a thousand times better. I think they will learn more, I will be more organized, and I will have proof if they are not mastering skills. Maybe that sounds like the wrong attitude. I’m not trying to prove my students can’t learn, it’s not how I hope it sounded…but there are some parents in serious denial about their child’s ability to do basic math and reading.
I did get some compliments this week. I think that the word is going around that I am quite emotionally fragile because I feel like some people are going out of their way to be kind and give compliments. I am happy for the positive feedback. The admin liked my new grading system so much that they showed it to other teachers who may be implementing it as well! Imitation is the more sincere form of flattery, right? My lead teacher has told me multiple times that he appreciates my work ethic. My principal has asked me to be our school’s representative to a district wide committee for a new mini-grant program. I am going to get to sift through some grant proposals to decide which ones to fund. Of course I agreed to do it. I want to make myself as useful as possible.
I am bringing two of my students to the science center this weekend and I am looking forward to it. My husband won’t be able to attend, though, as he will be in San Diego with his friends this weekend for a little band reunion tour.
Setting aside, for a moment, the fact that I had a kid pee his pants today with no warning, and then lie to his mom about how he begged me to go use the restroom and mean, Ms. D refused to grant him the privilege. Then, I got an angry phone call from mom, who refuses to call me back when I have a REAL concern about her son, and instead, will only call me in the middle of a lesson to yell at me and call me names.
Also setting aside that I had two of my sweetest students (and one not-so-sweet student) get caught red-handed totally, absolutely, cheating during tests today.
Also forgetting that I had a student who is constantly so disruptive that he is sent out of my room literally everyday just so that I can get through a lesson finally suspended today…and then come back to my room, cry but refuse to apologize to his classmates and me and continued to be disruptive for the rest of the day.
It wasn’t a terrible day.
My husband got a job offer in St. Louis that is stable, a step up from his current position, in the same field as his current job. He will be getting a substantial raise and an assistant. Woohoo! He will also gain a commute, which is a pain, but overall it will be good.
My team has finally decided to split up the lesson planning. THANK WHATEVER DIETY MIGHT EXIST. I no longer have to write out 25 lesson plans a week and I am now responsible for only 5 lesson plans a week, to be distributed to all my fellow 3rd grade teachers. I am responsible for math, which is probably the most difficult subject. However, 5 math lessons is a lot easier than 5 math lessons and 5 reading lessons and 5 writing lessons and 5 social studies lessons and 5 science lessons. My life is about to get much much easier. I might just have time to go out once in a while for a change.
