"A report of child abuse is made every ten seconds." -ChildHelp, National Child Abuse Statistics
One thing about teaching is that it certainly opens your eyes up to the world. Everyday I interact with children and parents from such a wide varieties of backgrounds. Backgrounds so different from my own.
While some days this is such a positive, multicultural, melting pot, 2+2 = 5 experience, today it just depresses me. In this one week, we've had to report 2 possible abuse situations to the administration about students on our team. It infuriates me. How can someone do that to "my" kids? How can they let it happen to "my" kids?
Just two weeks in, and those kids are already mine. It hurts me when they hurt, and these particular ones are not even what you'd call extremely "loveable" kids. But, no wonder they don't do their homework, no wonder they can't focus in class. It makes makes me mad.
“To love is to admire with the heart; to admire is to love with the mind”
-Theophile Gautier
Today was a good day. Almost all of my kids passed their quiz!!! Woohoo!! 'Cause I certainly remember last year's first quiz was quite an eye opener.
Today the assistant principal and principal came to my class to do walk-throughs. They're doing these quick pop-ins where they can stay no longer than 5 minutes. Both times my students were pretty well on track and those that weren't were able to be redirected.
The principal came up to me during the kids' transition time to tell me how much she loved my number line pennant hanging above the board and to ask where I had gotten it. I was so pleased to be able to say that my mom and I made it this summer. She thought it was really neat and was interested in making one for her son's bedroom.
I thought later...I should have told her that I would make her one if she'd pay for my laptop battery! :)
"Arithmetic is where numbers fly like pigeons in and out of your head."
-Carl Sandburg
What am I up to? Well... school, school, and more school. I am really enjoying the seventh grade. They're cuter than 8th graders and still pay attention for the most part. However, by Friday of last week, they were starting to show their true colors. I've really got to work on being stern. I just don't know how to talk so "teachery."
2nd period is by far my most challenging class... lots of needy personalities... one kid who speeds through his assignments and wants additional work, another kid who takes the whole class period to write the day's essential question, another kid who follows me around the classroom, in addition to several social butterflies.
But then, 3rd period is such a breath of fresh air. They listen, they complete their work, and we always finish with extra time to scrounge around for additional activities.
But, I still don't have a very good picture of my students' foundation levels. So it seems like I've had to rework each day's lesson in order to reteach. It's bad when you're already feeling behind on the second week of school. Well... tomorrow's another day.
"Technology... is a queer thing. It brings you great gifts with one hand, and it stabs you in the back with the other."
-C.P. Snow
I had a pretty good first day. It flew by, and my voice flew away with it. Obviously it's been a long time since I talked all day. I now sound like a man.
There was only one student who made himself known as "challenge student." I found out that three of my students are younger siblings of students from last year. And, I loved ending my day with my accelerated, on-top-of-the game class.
And the second annual name-counting tradition.... 3 Jacobs (in one class!), 2 Joshs, 2 Gabriels, 2 Stephens, 2 Briannas, 2 Matthews, 2 Victorias, 2 Natalies, 2 Tylers, 2 Caitlin W.'s, and a Jasmin who's a boy.
The low point of the day, however, had nothing to do with students. During my planning period at the end of the day, I realized that my laptop battery was kaput. If I unplugged it from the wall, the computer died. I put in a tech request and got the reply, "you're battery is dead. due to budget cuts we will not be providing additional batteries. you are welcome to purchase your own." Oh... just what I want to spend my first paycheck on...
"The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet."
-Aristotle
School starts tomorrow. Another year begins. I don't know that I've told the blogworld, but this year I've been moved down to seventh grade math. While that means another year of brand-new lesson plans, my fingers are crossed that the curriculum is a bit easier and more fun than last year's.
I've spent the last week up at the school, fixing up my room. And, after I found strong enough tape (on Friday, no less!), my posters are finally hung up on the walls. After rearranging a couple of times, my desks are in order. I have bulletin boards ready to be filled with student work and 28 chairs waiting for students eager to learn.
I'm sure this year will have plenty of challenges: I have a good number of ELL students, I'm teaching two different preps, this grade has a bad reputation, etc. But my fingers are crossed super tight, hoping that I've learned from my mistakes and will be able to find a better balance between home and school this year. My sanity depends on it!
