Officially Technological
Thursday, October 02, 2008
My First Week at School
Well, this was my first week of being a Freshman math teacher at Elmhurst High. It has certainly been an adventure. Although I must admit to really enjoying it. We're still working out the kinks. As a little background the kids have had 2 other teachers for math class. My honor's class is about 2-3 weeks behind the school district's map, and my two algebra classes are about 1-2 weeks behind map. The students ran the last guy ragged, so now they push every single button I have. They must not have found the right one yet, because I still like the little turkeys (well, most of them).
- Monday - Wrote up 2 students. One for squirting other students with his water bottle, and the other for cussing at me.
- Tuesday - Day went well. One student decided not to do his seat work, so he got up and threw it in the trash. I informed him that I was terribly sorry he threw it in the trash, because that was worth 40 point. He sat in his seat and pouted for 5 minutes, got up and dug it out of the trash. I'm trying not to gloat. hehe. In other news, 2 of my students got arrested at lunch for fighting in the cafeteria. One was expelled, the other spent the night in the juvenile detention center and will probably be back in a couple of weeks.
- Wednesday - The natives were restless. I thought I was having a noisy day, and then I bumped into the administrator responsible for the Freshman class (he's basically the freshman principal). He had a stack of referrals about 2" thick and said those were all from that day
- Today - Went well. I printed about a zillion little stars, and passed them out to "students portraying exemplary conduct". That worked well and put the focus on what I like to see instead of what I don't like to see. I don't know if it will always work well but it gave me a day off of screaming over 30 adolescents. I'll take it. ;)
That's all so far. I'll keep you informed of progress.
6 Comments:
Sounds fun! Glad it went so well and that the kids are learning it is more fun to get stars....you know...you could always implement Mr. Price's boastcard system.
Ooooooh! Good idea!
Yeah! Another teacher in the family! And one who knows how to run a tight ship as well. You make us all so proud. Wouldn't you just love to see kids in Brett's classes try to get away with something? I would get so much satisfaction out of that. I guess the kids who think that they can push your button don't know that as a youngest child you've been an expert on button pushing yourself- not that you stoop to that kind of thing now that you're a grown up :-)
Oh my gosh. You are so brave.
You're going to be as good as Mrs. Foco and Mr. Pryce and Mr. Steive some day. It'll be awesome to say, "My best friend is a really great teacher."
Gosh, hearing your adventures in high school makes me glad I'm teaching elementary. The worst they do is get noisy and lose focus. I love the (semi-) innocence of them. :) My mom teaches high school English and she says her students respond really well to candy. Positively reinforce the ones with good behavior by giving them candy and they should start acting better. Or at least it works for my mom.
Go first year teachers! :)
Sounds like you are earning your money. That's why I stick to elementary :)
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