Well, it was easier to come back then I thought it would be. I'm exhausted, behind in the million things that need to be done, and haven't quite fixed my sleeping schedule, but the kids have been mostly great since returning. They came back Monday ready to jump back into learning which encouraged me to jump right back into teaching, so it's been a productive few days.
We aren't learning anything new this week. I think that helps a lot. We're not overwhelming the kids with brand new difficult concepts their first day back to school. We're spending a week doing what we call an "Insert." We review 4 big topics for 4 days. Then on Friday we'll take a test for the second time over these 4 big topics. It will be a chance for many kids to learn the material a lot better and improve their scores from the first time they took a test over this same stuff.
A funny story: Today I watched a kid throw a carrot over a railing and down some stairs at another kid. I confronted the carrot-thrower. He denied everything even though I saw it clearly, he was eating a carrot while talking to me, and had additional carrots in his pocket. (We also have cameras that I'm sure caught everything.) I'm interested to see what he receives for the carrot throwing. Word has it he was throwing stuff at lunch earlier too, and I saw probably 10 different carrots in different spots throughout the hallway later on...
Something positive: Yesterday a few kids were asking me "Life Questions." One of my students has some mad skills at interviewing so he would ask me questions between every few practice problems. One of his questions was what I was most passionate about. I was able to tell them immediately that my faith was the thing I was most passionate about. I couldn't really have the conversation that I would have loved to have with them because I don't want to get in trouble, so I steered it back to math, but those things inspire me because I feel so much more accountable for the character that my kids see in me. (It is a little bit sad that they will be a silent captive audience if we're talking about pretty much anything but math...)
We aren't learning anything new this week. I think that helps a lot. We're not overwhelming the kids with brand new difficult concepts their first day back to school. We're spending a week doing what we call an "Insert." We review 4 big topics for 4 days. Then on Friday we'll take a test for the second time over these 4 big topics. It will be a chance for many kids to learn the material a lot better and improve their scores from the first time they took a test over this same stuff.
A funny story: Today I watched a kid throw a carrot over a railing and down some stairs at another kid. I confronted the carrot-thrower. He denied everything even though I saw it clearly, he was eating a carrot while talking to me, and had additional carrots in his pocket. (We also have cameras that I'm sure caught everything.) I'm interested to see what he receives for the carrot throwing. Word has it he was throwing stuff at lunch earlier too, and I saw probably 10 different carrots in different spots throughout the hallway later on...
Something positive: Yesterday a few kids were asking me "Life Questions." One of my students has some mad skills at interviewing so he would ask me questions between every few practice problems. One of his questions was what I was most passionate about. I was able to tell them immediately that my faith was the thing I was most passionate about. I couldn't really have the conversation that I would have loved to have with them because I don't want to get in trouble, so I steered it back to math, but those things inspire me because I feel so much more accountable for the character that my kids see in me. (It is a little bit sad that they will be a silent captive audience if we're talking about pretty much anything but math...)
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