Day Eight

As you can probably tell, it's been a busy week for me. No, the students haven't eaten me alive yet, but they've definitely got that look in their eyes by now. For that reason, it was probably a good thing that we had a guest speaker in both of my classes today. The librarian came to our classes to do a presentation on censorship. It was a really great addition to the unit that I had planned. My cooperating teacher told me that the librarian had done this in the past. He was well-rehearsed, and it was nice to see how my students respond to a different kind of teaching. It was also nice to see that they really do have trouble with a whole-class discussion (with anyone leading it) and that it's not just me! Anyway, for a pretty low-key day, it was still eventful... as always!

WORST THING:
Today I asked two boys in my fifth hour class to be more respectful when someone is speaking-- not just today, either. I told them that it has been an ongoing thing. And one of them argued with me! He told me that even though they were talking while someone else was speaking, they were "still paying attention!" I told him it was still distracting for me and for his peers, but he just pointed a finger at someone else. I hadn't encountered this situation yet, so I just gave him the "teacher look" and walked away. This was towards the end of the hour, so I didn't have a chance to see if asking them personally did anything to curb the behavior. We'll have to wait and see.

BEST THING:
I had a chance to bond a little bit with one of my problematic students. He's really making great strides (even though they'd be seen as baby steps compared to most students) in my class already. He was being a little bit disruptive in class today while the librarian was speaking, so I took him aside and asked him to please be respectful. I posed it as a deal: if he did that, then he could have a one-time pass to the vending machines (he's always hungry and I think that's one reason that he can't focus). When he came back from the vending machines (and his locker, I might add...), he sat down next to me. Even though he wasn't paying attention to the guest speaker, we had an opportunity to have an intelligent conversation. I think he respects me, which is a really big win for the "teacher team." It felt good, even though it's a big responsibility to keep up with this relationship and make sure that he still respects me enough to do his work.

Looking forward to tomorrow: essay writing about controversy..... yikes!