Today school is closed for Rosh Hashanah. When my students asked me what that was, all I could say is that it is a Jewish holiday, but I had no further information. That prompted me to learn more about it, and I found out that it is the New Year celebration. I think it is fitting then to take this opportunity to look back at the last few weeks of the new school year and try to reflect a little. We are only in the third week of school, so it is still the New Year.
I am working many things out in my classroom still. As much as I tried to have the appropriate procedures and classsroom management systems in place before school started, there are so many things that I never anticipated. I feel like the systems are in constant flux, so even though I try to be consistent with my students, it is no wonder that they are confused. I am confused. I understand the importance of giving clear and explicit expectations. This is the goal, but I feel so far from there.
What I have learned so far:
1. Collecting student work. My students do not seem to take a task seriously unless then physically will hand me a piece of paper and get some sort of mark on it, even if it is just a check mark. Previously, I had been trying to track classwork points by marking their papers with a check and recording it on my clipboard during class. This week, I started collecting the classwork at the end of class each day and then giving it back. Now that they are turning it in, they seem to take it more seriously. As much as I would prefer to not have to deal with collecting and then passing back so much paper each day, I plan on continuing to collect the work each day for the foreseeable future. I am also not getting enough homework participation. I will be issuing interim progress reports this Friday. I am hoping that students who see they are failing because they do not turn in homework will begin to realize that they are in fact responsible for their grades. I do not normally accept late homework, but I am going to let them turn in any late work up to this point for a max of 80% of the credit. I hope many of them will turn in their late work so they do not have to start off the year with such poor grades.
2. Staying Organized. Managing the paperwork that comes in and out each day from students, other teachers and administration is overwhelming. I am used to doing a lot of things electronically, but I find that I do not have the time during the day to ever be near a computer, so I am back to pen and paper record keeping. One of the best tips for trying to stay organized came from a member of the TNTP staff and it is helping so much. I have folders for the following things: "To Read", "To file", 'To Copy", "To Grade". I deal with these four folders everyday and try to clear them each day, or at least every other day. I also have taken the advice from other teachers that the best systems are often the simplest. My phone log for keeping track of parent communications is just a spiral notebook. So far it is working. I also have a lot of random papers that are hard to classify, forms, memo, things from administrations, etc. Right now, they go into a binder just because I don't know what else to do with them. As far as emails, I usually cannot check more than once a day. I use the popular "inbox zero" system and have folders in my email for everything. If there is an item that needs my attention I flag it and it stays in the inbox until I take care of it. Everything else gets sorted into a folder. The goal each day is to have nothing in the inbox. I use this system for my personal email too and I like it.
3. Make-up Work. I have endeavored to establish a make-up work procedure in my class for students who are absent and need the assignments, but it is failing. My policy is that students who miss a day are responsible for checking the make-up work binder, prominently labeled and located in a place where they are forced to see it. I put the make-up work in there each day. I remind students over and over. It was communicated to the parents in the parent letter and the class syllabus. It is on the website. (No one besides me has ever looked at the website. I am going to show it to them in class now that I have a computer and LCD projector.) No one is getting it. I don't want to scrap the system, I would prefer to get them to use it. But right now, I don't know what else to do and I am looking for suggestions from anyone who will listen to me. I know other teachers at my school get this system to work for them. I wanted to avoid having to keep track of who is gone each day and making sure they get the work, but I might have to establish a system in which I write down the absences and then make students sign when they get the make up work from the folder and when they turn it it. I don't know.
4. Setting clear expectations. When the kids are acting crazy, I know it is because I have failed to let them know what I want them to do. I was discussing with my father recently that I have difficulty getting students to raise their hands and not shout things out. He asked me if I was being clear about when it is OK to shout out and when it is required to raise hands. He took a foreign language course at the community college over the summer, and he found that even in an adult classroom, he was often confused about when the instructor wanted hands raised and when he wanted everyone to just respond. My father felt that he was always doing the wrong thing, so he stopped volunteering responses. He is completely correct. The students get mixed signals from me. I am trying to make sure I specify when I want hands raised and when I want "popcorn" or shouting out, or when I want a group response.
5. Focusing on positive behavior. I have many kids who are doing a great job and really trying. But I get so distracted with the few that are disruptive I feel I spend all my time punishing bad behavior and not rewarding good. I am setting a goal that each day, I make sure to give a "Good Day Note" to a minimum of 1 person in each class. I also will keep track of who they are going to so I don't miss anyone who deserves it, and be sure that the other students know exactly what the good behavior was that earned that recognition. We are also implementing a school wide reward system in which students earn "bucks" as rewards. They will get to use these bucks for whole-school rewards.
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I agree that schools need to get on board with electronic communication. I was cleaning out a former teacher's desk last week at the school where I volunteer, and I was overwhelmed by all of the little slips of paper she had, and I was baffled by the fact that most all of them seemed to be forms she had created. Why would anyone think having a bunch of extra slips of paper around of various sizes and colors is an organized way to effect mass communication? It was a joy to throw all those pieces of paper into the trashcan.
ReplyDeleteIt frustrates me that K-12 teachers don't seem to use their email at all. A few years ago, I asked the school secretary for my daughter's elementary school classroom teacher's email address, and her response was to not even bother, that most of the staff didn't even know their work email, let alone check it. Are you kidding me?
K-12 needs to move from electronic devices being "bad" or prohibited & embrace them as learning devices. I understand that when you're teaching, you're not sitting at your desk in front of a computer. That's why phones and iPads were invented. Of course, if you're the only person with a phone, that doesn't change the situation. The students know how to use the devices. It's the staff, and especially the administrative staff that needs to get on board with the 21st Century. Seriously, I am going into schools that have all of this technology...laptops for the students, electronic whiteboards and projectors in all the classrooms, and yet I still see students messengering slips of paper back and forth to the office. For real.