Jerking

Quote of the Week:
(From a student's information sheet)
What are things you do outside of school that you enjoy the most?
"I like to video myself jerking on facebook"

When I read that, my eyes got huge and I was scared to find out what I had just learned about this student who isn't actually in my class so I should have never had his information sheet to begin with. I took it to school the next day and showed it to some teachers...all of us are 23. So, we're not that old. However, there is still some new lingo that sounds like old lingo that we don't know about. The male teacher on my team figured out through some conversations with students that jerking is a dance. Whew! That could have been a bad situation fast.

Well, I made it through my first full five day week of school! And, I'm not nearly as tired as I thought I would be. I was scared that by Wednesday I would hit a wall of exhaustion. I came close to hitting that wall yesterday, but managed to keep the wall a hurdle that I was able to jump over and manage to get through the rest of the week with energy, patience, and a positive attitude.

One of the biggest things I've had to get used to is how much time goes into planning. Planning a lesson and creating a flip chart for my activboard for each day takes a long time! I spend well over an hour for each day. And, I've learned that I can't see the forest for the trees. When I have a lot of little things to get done, I can't focus on the bigger things that I need to get done, which are usually more important. For example, I have had a lot of little things on my to do list this week (emergency sub plans, professional development plan, organizing notebooks, decorating my room, etc.) and then one major big thing...plan for next week. I could not get myself to focus on next week until I had accomplished most of the "smaller" things on my to do list. I think I just like to check stuff off. I get to check a lot of small things off if I do those instead of planning, which is just one thing. I'll get better with this when lesson plans for the week begin to be due Monday morning at 7am.

Pay day was this week. At Appalachian, we do a lot of internships and are in the schools a lot as we go through our teacher preparation program. And, we're SO lucky to get those opportunities. But, we do it all for free. Actually, we pay to do it because we are paying tuition. So, everything I've done the past few weeks, I'm used to doing for free/for a negative income. So,  when I saw that check in my box the last day of the month, I was ExCiTeD!!

The honeymoon period of good behavior is slowly wearing off. Other than a major attitude problem a couple days ago, my biggest problem has just been talking during class. Although that can get annoying fast, I can't really complain; I could have much bigger problems on my hands.

I forgot how mad an attitude can make you. I don't care if you come in my class mad from something that happened earlier in the day. I understand things happen that aren't always the best. However, when you allow that attitude to affect your attitude towards me, we've got issues. One of my students came storming into class and then refused to do anything in my class. I tried talking to her in the hallway and that's when I reached my limit. She kept saying she had the right to choose whether or not she was going to do my work. I said, "You're right. Your choice is: you can do my work or you can go see an administrator." She chose the administrator and I respected her choice. I stayed very calm (firm, but calm) with her in the hallway and didn't realize how mad her disrespect made me until I went back in class and tried to carry on like nothing had happened. I kept a good face up, but I was mad. I was able to move past it and carry on with class. And, (as surprising as this is for a 7th grader to do) she apologized to me multiple times later that day. She's been great since then and my respect for her grew tremendously as a result of her actions later that day.

Another thing that has surprised me about some of my students is how much they love to read. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE that they love to read! And, a lot of them can not get their noses out of books. The second I take a break in class or they finish an assignment, they have a book out. It's awesome most of the time. Sometimes I have to tell them, "I'm so glad you love to read so much, but you have got to put the book away right now." I know I wasn't like that in 7th grade and I don't remember my classmates being like that either. Major kudos to some teacher or parent along the way who helped them learn to love reading!

I have an inclusion class one period, which is the class where students with any special education labels are placed. In each of my internships, I got to experience an inclusion class and awesome inclusion teachers. But, I didn't enjoy any of them as much as I am enjoying this one. I have 15 students in that class and they are all great! A lot of them have not been very successful in math in the past and I can see their struggles, but they come in every day, are attentive, and try so hard. And, they're doing great! I love this class because they are a great group of kids and because they are a challenge for me. I love math; I get math; I always have. Most of them don't. It's hard for me to understand that and because of this, I have to plan my instruction very carefully. I have to watch my pace and make sure that I am explaining things clearly, in every day terms, so that I don't lose them. It's been hard and I'm not very good at it yet, but I'm trying. They are going to be the reason I become a better math teacher this year.

Oh yea...the superintendent showed up at school this week. My class was lining up for lunch yesterday and a teacher stuck his head in the door and said, "FYI the principal and superintendent are in the hall." I closed my door and said, "Let's talk about something. The principal and superintendent are in the hallway. I'm new here and I need YOU to make ME look good. And, you do that by walking in a straight line, silently down the hall. Please, please, please be on your best behavior for me!" They did not say a word walking down that hallway. Or, going back because when we left the cafeteria, they were in the lobby. The quote of that day quickly became from other teachers, "FYI Spencer and the superintendent are roaming the halls." 

I've put a lot more on my walls this week, but I forgot to take a picture this afternoon. I was too excited that it was Friday and that it's a three day weekend! I got out of there as quickly as possible!!

Happy Labor Day Weekend!

PS Next week is not only a 4-day week, but we have an early release day on Wednesday AND the fall fundraiser kick off. So, we won't be doing much in class on Wednesday. And, we have our first football game Thursday. It should be a GREAT week!