Trials of a Tekkie Teacher

In my last Team Teacher Check In post, I wrote about my frustration with students not turning in homework and other assignments. So, today, I started a new policy. Today is the first day of the 2nd nine weeks. I reviewed all of my classroom procedures and behavioral expectations, with each classes, and then I revisited  my 1st day speech, with a few minor additions. (Harry Wong definitely influences my procedures/routines in class!)

“Today is the first day of the new nine weeks. I want to review my expectations for you as my students and fellow learners in our classroom. It is extremely important for you to come prepared every day and be ready to learn and participate in activities. You need to take responsibility for your learning. I can do everything I can as a teacher, but you must take ownership of your learning in order to be successful. In that vein, if you choose not to do your homework ( or miss any assignment), you will fill out the homework excuse letter stating the assignment missed, why you missed it, your name and the date - and turn it in to the appropriate period’s folder. We are partners in your education, so step up! I want to help you on your journey to becoming a life long learner.”

(Somewhat abbreviated version, but that’s the gist of it.) We’ll see how it works. Any other ideas?

Update: Using the excuse notes, the number of students missing HW has decreased. My students write their HW in their agenda at the beginning of class, and I sign each agenda, so I know they’re writing the assignment down. Also, I’m sending home notes stapled in the agenda after they miss a certain number of assignments. I’m getting good response from the parents, both in the number of notes returned and the phone calls I’ve made home!

Success! Love using Edmodo so far in my classroom(see my last post for more details.) My kids are getting excited about it, and so am I. 

Concern - So many of my students of my students are not turning in assignments, completing HW, etcetera. It’s much worse than in prior years - can’t help but wonder if it’s connected to the “no zero” policy my district has. 

Does anyone have ideas on how to instill the importance of punctuality and accountability to students? So frustrated - still missing 10 projects due 10/5. I’ve called home, emailed, referred them to the ‘zone’ (our area for students who are missing assignments), met with them privately, etcetera…

Any suggestions would be appreciated! Thanks!

Clarification on the *no zero* policy - we can put a zero in the gradebook, but we have to use our 45 minutes reteaching time in the morning to chase kids down to do assignments. Once they miss 2 assignments in your class, you can assign them to the Zone, where they’ll go each morning until they complete the assignment. If they’re failing 2 or more subjects, they go to ‘Boot Camp.’

I can only give a student a zero for the assignment if he/she STILL has not turned it in at the end of the nine weeks, and I have to have documentation that I have attempted to get the child to do their work. Also, I cannot take points off for late work anymore either. 

In regards to homework - I cannot have a homework average as part of my grade, because that is “grading behavior, not standards.”

Team Teachers: Teacher Check-In!

Just saw this! I’ll work on this post tomorrow after work…

teamteachers:

How it works:

1. In a brand new post, share one thing that went well / is going well (at work or in your personal life).
2. Share one thing that has you stressed, concerned, etc.
3. Let us know if there is anything the Tumblr Teachers Community can do to help you with your teaching (resources needed, ideas, classroom pen pals, donors choose projects, etc.).
4. Reblog this post so that people know that it is check-in time (if you see this late, you are welcome to check-in late). Use the tag TTCI (Tumblr Teacher Check-In).
5. Help any fellow teachers that you can.

(via firstclassroom)

iamlittlei:

Going well: my 6th period “low-track” science class. We did a graphing lesson yesterday that went really well; the students were engaged, on task, asking good questions—we have a great rapport!

Difficulty—I’m only lecturing about twice a week in gifted biology, but I still feel like I’m overwhelming them with notes. I need a new content-delivery mechanism to shake things up.

In other news: home with the family for the first tine since July and it’s great!

I just tried a new lecture strategy with Stations(I posted about it in my prior blog entry), and it worked really well! My g/t students did well with it and we were able to spend more time on discussion after the notes too. I hope that helps - let me know if you need more details on it!

Celebrations 

This Tuesday I went to a professional development inservice that our State Department presented about Single Gender Education (I have an all boys class this year). Our homework was to try some of the strategies from the class, and I was so excited about how well the new strategies worked! I can’t wait to try some more next week…

I used “stations” for notes this week rather than PowerPoints. (I posted the notes in stations around the room, numbered them, and then split the students up for each class.) Depending on the number of notes, I changed the amount of time I allowed per station in each class. After they finished their notes, they turned to a partner and did Think-Pair-Share about what they learned that was most interesting, what they wanted to know more about, etcetera. They loved it! (And more importantly, they remembered the content too!!)

I decided to switch up my seats more frequently and somewhat randomly. I cut some playing cards in half and taped half of each playing card to the back of the desk. The students chose a card as they walked in the door and that’s how the found their seat. I love the fact that I have an easy way to mix students up without spending too much time doing seating charts!

Concerns

Once again, I feel overwhelmed. I don’t feel like I can get everything done. I’ve been teaching for 7 years, but somehow I just can’t make it all work this year. I’ve been staying later again, bringing home more work, and struggling with my energy levels. My stress fracture(diagnosed a week and a half after I went to the doctor about it!) isn’t helping things. I’m feeling frustrated in general about a lot of things, because some of it I can’t do, or I’m not supposed to do, and it’s driving me crazy! So between the two things - rough week. :o( I hope next week will be better!

Help/Suggestions

I’d love some suggestions about using Posterous Groups in the Social Studies classroom, if anyone’s used it before! Also, I’m trying to come up with some new (tech) ways for my g/t students to present their 9 weeks projects. They’ll be comparing 2 river valley civilizations. Any suggestions/ideas would be wonderful and greatly appreciated!
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Team Teachers: Today is the First Tumblr Teachers Check-In

teamteachers:

How it works:

1. In a brand new post, share one thing that went well this week (at work or in your personal life).
2. Share one thing that has you stressed, concerned, etc.
3. Let us know if there is anything the Tumblr Teachers Community can do to help you with your teaching (resources needed, ideas,…