We’ll my first class didn’t go so bad. We only had a half hour with the kids after they got changed and did their warm ups. This testing has the schedule all screwed up. It really forces us to be organized and maximizing the time that we have. I taught the students correct batting technique along with bunting. It took quite a bit to set up. I had two poly spots about 10 feet away; one for each partner. At one poly spot, there was a bucket with a bat inside. I had about 10 of these set up around the gym. My first instructions with them, because of safety, was that the first person I saw goofing off with the bats would have their equipment taken away. This really helped with curbing the students’ behavior to be of somewhat on task.
I noticed that with this lesson and a couple of my other lessons, I don’t provide enough challenges for those who “get it.” I know that I write them into my lesson plans, but whenever it comes time to teach it, I either forget to provide them the challenge or we just go into the next task without getting to those challenges (especially now since classes are so short and I need to cover a lot of stuff because class meetings have been cut in half). It’s hard to go from planning for an hour class to being cut to only a half hour.
The second class was only 26 minutes long as well. I had my honors class and the girls are working on their dances. I gave them the whole class period to have time to work as group and come up with the dance they are going to teach. I even saw from this class that there is a little resistance from the students from doing anything right now because of testing. Some classes are worse than the others, but I have even noticed it from my honors class. I guess I was already expecting this and that is why my lesson plans are not too intricate, but it’s harder to get the students motivated to do anything else other than talking to their friends.
My third class just went to the weight room and were given free time to just work off the stress of the testing. They only had 20 minutes so we talked a little bit about heart rates, but they didn’t really want to listen, so then we just went straight into lifting. I only required that they do something and not just stand around and talk. It was also a good time to see the students apply what they learned from the last class such as our weight room rules and principles.
There is a lot of crap coming from the situation with the student that occurred yesterday. I had already talked to my cooperating teacher about it and she told me not to worry about it because the student said the same thing about another teacher just the day before. The assistant principle sought me out and was asking me what happened. Apparently, the kid went home and told his mother about it. The mother called into the office and now he was questioning me about it. I know that is what they have to do, but even as I was talking to him about it, I could see that he would rather side with the kid anyway. My cooperating teacher was standing right there next to me as we were talking about it. She told me after we walked away that he has already been sued twice before for not handling situations like this properly. However, about an hour later, my cooperating teacher told me that he said to the student “You know you can’t be making allegations like this because it could cause a teacher to lose their job.” You don’t say things like that to a kid like this. He will use that information and just be a pester to another teacher. AGHH!!
I guess it just goes to show you that you have to be careful with the way you work with the students. It’s a shame because you shouldn’t always have to be watching over your shoulder. I know that it is important that you watch what you say or do around students because you are a role model, but I show my appreciation and affection to students by patting them on the shoulders. It’s a disgrace that all of this has had to come about just because I touched another student on the back. It shouldn’t have to be like this.
Welp. What can you do? Kids these days have it rough and teachers have it rougher trying to reach out to their students without it looking like they are “crossing the line.” J It’s a shame.
Until tomorrow!
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