A Class Discussion...

While I tend to be a perfectionist, I'll admit that no one has perfect days. Perhaps even veteran teachers do not have perfect days. Yesterday was the first day that I had to speak to class 605 about expectations. Let's face it: students are completely different when they walk into your classroom after lunch. Before lunch, you have angels. After lunch, you have kids that want to go back to finishing their football/basketball game or game of tag. At the end of class, we had a discussion about what we did wrong and what needed to improve. As a result, they earned no tokens yesterday and they understood that this course of action was fair.

You have to be firm with students, but you also have to be fair. As a rookie teacher, sometimes it's very difficult to pinpoint the source or cause of off-task behavior. My first question is always "was it MY fault? Was there something that I could have done better to prevent what happened?" Sometimes it is our fault. Perhaps lessons could be structured a different way. Perhaps we talk too much. Sometimes it is not. Sometimes the students are just rowdy after lunch. Sometimes they prefer to talk over getting their work completed. Sometimes they are bored. Sometimes they don't understand what to do, so talking to the person behind them is a sound plan. Unlike yesterday, 605 was spot on today. They were all prepared, worked well together and solved all of their questions while explaining their thinking.

They were able to earn the tokens they lost yesterday along with today's token. They were very excited that they made up for yesterday. I took advantage of this and made sure that we discussed as a class the difference between yesterday and today, so that they are more aware of the contrast in their effort. They were able to easily pinpoint these differences and I was very proud of them. I want kids to understand that we all work together and contribute to our classroom environment. If someone isn't doing the correct thing, it affects all of us. I have huge faith in this class and I know they will all succeed. Congrats 605!