And so Winter Break begins. Reflecting back on my teaching experiences of the past five months, I would say it’s been mostly positive.
Starting with the negative, there was this one student who had been progressively getting worse in terms of the amount of disrespect given, so much so that I had to call the parent in to witness the student’s behavior. Though it went from bad to worse to creating more and more tense situations everyday (a power struggle so to speak), the student eventually became more respectful, courteous, and more willing to learn (closer to the holidays, so I’m sure he’s doing it for Christmas presents). Other than that, there’s some other generally chatty students, but they’re respectful which makes it all the more easier to ask them politely to keep it down.
In terms of organization, I have all students complete a “interactive notebook” so to speak, stapling all their assignments inside. Starting next semester the school wants to implement this notebook in every single classroom so I guess my students will be one step ahead of the curve.
The notebook has an obligatory Table of Contents.
Then there is a “Tweet of the Day”, which essentially is a warmup designed to trick students into “tweeting” their answers, with the appropriate hashtags.
I have students do a variety of document analysis, because history is so much more than reading a textbook or me lecturing information to them.
I give students study guides for all their tests, which look eerily similar to the ones I made in high school. I kept the exact same format. I’m eventually going to wean them off of them and have them create their own study guides.
Sometimes we Snapchat in class in an effort to keep things current and relate more to the students.
I use a combination of classdojo and class points to keep students engaged and willing to learn. If they have the most points at the end of the quarter, they will win a pizza party for their class (paid for by me of course).
I try to post their grades every week as well. I got into the habit of calling parents of students that were bad. However, I realized that in doing so I neglected the parents of good students. Subsequently I called all the parents of my top 10 students in every class to thank them for raising a wonderful child. They were all surprised to hear from me thinking their kid was in trouble, but were ecstatic to hear otherwise.
A facebook project they did on the Founding Fathers turned out pretty well for the students. These kids are right around the age of where they began experimenting with social media, hopefully in the right way.
And of course I was bombarded with presents and thank you notes from various students right before the break, which of course makes me appreciate the hard work I do even more.
I try to keep things light-hearted in the classroom, lecturing for at maximum 25 minutes a class period. I try to tell jokes to relieve some stress, pointing out to students to either “stop flirting” or to stop their love triangles.
Some teachers prefer the model “Don’t Smile Till’ December”, which amounts to being super strict with students in an effort to try to manage the classroom more efficiently. Though my classroom management is rather weak at times, I prefer a more open classroom environment where students are able to converse at times and I’m able to crack a joke or two (maybe at their expense).
I’m excited for a much needed break. I have 2 weeks left in this semester, and then I’ll finish out the second half of the year. For my first year of teaching, it’s been an amazing experience overall.
