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I’m going to try listing for myself (most days, if not every day) 3 good things, 2 bad things, and 1 thing that I can change.  I think that (especially in this post-hurricane craziness), I’ve forgotten to reflect.  The path of least resistance is to come home and pass out, rather than actually think about my experiences and how I can improve them.
Three positives from today:

1. In 7th grade, we talked about functions today.  We used “algebra machines,” and I made the analogy to an oven.  You put a number (like your cookie dough) into the machine, and you get a different number out (like your cookies).  If you put a different number in (like cake batter), you get a different number out (like cake).  At least 2 of my 4 classes ate it up.
2. In my largest, rowdiest class, every time I said “I need you to STOP in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1″–they actually, you know, stopped.  (Silent, Tracking me, Objects down, Paying attention).
3. One of my most challenging students (whom other teachers seem to have given up on) was really, really trying hard today.  He stood me up for tutorials yesterday, but explained this morning that his mom had to take him home early.  I don’t know the exact details, but he cared enough to let me know something.

Two negatives from today:

1. Another Challenge Student would. not. sit. DOWN today.  I don’t know what got into him, but he was pretty out of control, and I drew a blank as to what to do with him.  I need to figure out a way to work with him, especially on his bad days, that allows the class to also function.  I said I’d call his mom, but didn’t make it a high enough priority before it got too late.
2. Fourth period was also out of control today, and I’m not sure why.  It’s not a large class, and it was initially one of my best.  Now I’m not so sure.  In general, it’s not one or two particular students that are ridiculous–rather, it’s almost impossible for the entire class to be quiet at once.

One thing to change for tomorrow:

1. I’m going to implement a Points System, so that each class can work together, yet in competition with other classes.  Points will be earned for good things (getting started right away, waiting for me to dismiss them when the bell rings, raising hands to answer questions, etc) and lost for less-good things (talking out of turn, saying “shut up”, throwing things in the trash from a distance, etc).  Points wil accumulate throughout the quarter, and they can be used for privileges–homework passes, no seating chart, etc.  Though this may backfire with certain Challenge Students (who have the potential to bring down the entire class’s total), it should help with classes like 4th period, where there are a lot of little things going on.

Tomorrow is another day, with new objectives.

I believe that hurrication is, in fact, the technical term for the unexpected vacation caused by a hurricane.  It is not to be confused with the similarly popular staycation, though my current break from school could be labeled as either.

Ike, of course, ripped up most of Houston, so everything has been cancelled since school let out on Thursday.  No tutorials, no Open House, no school, no pep rally, no football games, nothing.  We might go back on Thursday, but it’s anyone’s guess at this point.  I happen to be one of the lucky few who has power and water pressure (the water is of questionable quality, but at least I have electricity to boil it).  I also have food and bottled water, so I have no need to seek refuge elsewhere.

Though I am worried about my kids and their families, their location on the west side of Houston means that they were probably spared serious damage.  I’m really hoping that’s correct.  If it’s not…well, we’ll do what we can with what we have.

Thursday was a little crazy, since everyone knew that the hurricane was coming.  All day, rumours were flying around about school being canceled and Ike intensifying–every class had questions about it:

“Ok, class, don’t forget about our test tomorr–”
“But Miss!  There’s no school tomorrow!”
“We don’t know that yet.  The principal hasn’t canceled school yet.”
“But I heard from an AP!”
“The principal will make the official announcement at the end of the day.  Regardless, the next day that we have school, whether it’s tomorrow–”
“But school’s canceled tomorrow!!!!”
“–whether it’s tomorrow, or Monday, or Tuesday, or whenever, there will be a test.”
“But Miss!!  You can’t do that!”
“Whenever you come back to school, you will have a test.  We need to take the time that we have now–”
“But there’s a HURRICANE COMING!!”
“–take the time that we have now to prepare for that test.”

On Friday, I had planned to test or quiz all of my classes.  We’ll see how that goes whenever we get back.  I also had all sorts of grandiose plans for tutorials and detentions after school on Thursday, as well as the Open House, but all of that got washed away (pardon the pun).

Now that I have all this time off (with electricity, to boot!), the TFA thing to do would be to catch up on:

1. Grading
2. Tracking
3. Reflecting on my teaching (and related TAL actions)
4. Planning ahead for the next unit
5. Creating dynamic powerpoints
6. Reading for my certification class

But…somehow relaxing and shopping (at the Galleria, the city’s great refuge from the heat and darkness) seem much more appealing.

I have the best job in the world–I’m quite convinced of that.  The long hours are pretty normal for me, and it’s almost like I’ve adjusted to going to bed early and waking up early.  I’m actually averaging more sleep than I ever did in college.  And I’m getting used to standing for a thousand hours a day.  I actually want to start wearing a pedometer, to see how much I walk each day.  That could be interesting.

Today was quite the exciting day.  I even caught myself thinking “wow.  I’m so blogging this tonight.”  So, uh, I’m blogging this.

One of my more challenging students came into class today, with a piece of paper on which I was to rate his behavior and write a comment.  There were spaces for each of his other teachers to do the same.  Of course, he came in and said “Miss, you need to sign this.  Give me all 2s, though [the highest rating], not any of those 0s!”  I actually did give him a 2 (and no 0s)–he behaves relatively well in my class, but is a troublemaker in all the others.

Later on, a student who is normally very respectful and well-behaved was missing class.  I had seen her earlier (talking to the above student, coincidentally), and thought it was odd.  Someone said “Oh, miss, she got in a fight!”  As it turned out, she had not been in a fight, but instead was in someone else’s class.  The other teacher dragged her into my room about half an hour after class and (in front of my entire class) said “Here she is–she was in my class all period!  I realized she wasn’t supposed to be here and brought her here!  I think this should be an auotmatic referral because she’s been skipping your class!”  Not exactly the most subtle way to deal with the problem.  I responded:  “Well, thank you, I’ll talk to her about it in a minute.  I’m going to finish giving the notes, though.”  The other teacher left, my student sat down in the back of the room.

I finished the notes and got everyone started on practicing.  I came to the back of the room and had the following conversation:

“Look, I know something’s going on.  You weren’t ok in class yesterday, and you’ve been gone most of today.  What’s the deal?”

[Angry look at the wall]

“I don’t want to give you a referral.  I don’t even want to give you a detention.  But think about how this looks from my perspective.  You don’t show up for class, and then you get dragged in by another teacher.  It looks like you were skipping my class, and that does warrant at least a detention, if not a referral.  But something else is going on here, and I’m sure that there’s a perfectly reasonable explanation for all this.  You just have to tell me what it is.”

[Angry look at the wall, then tears welling in the eyes, then:]  “You don’t even know what I go through every day at this shool!”

“You’re right, I don’t know.  I have absolutely no idea.  But, if you tell me about it, I can try to understand, and I can empathize.  I’ll never know exactly what it’s like because I’m not you, in your body, living your life.  But I can try to understand, if you tell me about it.”

“Why do you want to give me a referral, then?”

“I don’t want to give you a referral.  I want to work something out that will be ok for both of us.  I’ll let you think about it for a little bit; we can talk about it later.”

So she was pretty angry and emotional about something.  I think I’m about to get my first taste of real middle school drama.  We talked later in the day, and she’s going to stay after on Thursday to make up the missed time and get the notes.  We’ll see how that goes.

In less dramatic news, two of my 6th period (ie, crazy period) kids stayed after for tutorials.  After we worked on variables and expressions for a bit, we started talking about other stuff, too.  One–A–called me “pretty” at least two or three times.  Some of the science teachers came through to get to the science closet attached to my room.  After they left, A turned to me and said:

“The one in the grey shirt is really pretty.”

“What?”

“The teacher, with the grey shirt, she’s really pretty.”

[Realizing she was talking about another CM] “Oh, yeah, she is.  She’s really nice, too–I hope you have her for science next year!”

“Yeah, me too.  The skinny, pretty teachers–like you and her–are always really nice.”

I tried really hard to contain my amusement–that’s probably the first time someone’s called me “skinny.”  Then, the other one–C–confessed that she has a crush!

“Oh, Miss, I’ve got a crush!”
“Really?  On whom?”
“Oh, Miss, I don’t know his name”
“What?  You have a crush on someone, but you don’t know his name?”
“No, Miss!  He’s in my third period class.  I don’t think he even knows who I am.  I sent him a note, but I told her [the friend who sent the note?] not to tell him it was from me.”
“But…”
“See, I don’t know if he likes me or not!”
“Oh, ok–but don’t you want to introduce yourself?”
“But he might not like me!”
“Well, C, even if he doesn’t like you, you’re still pretty awesome [’And beauuuutiful!’ A interjected], so it would be his loss.  But you’ll never know unless you meet him.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

Oh, to be in middle school again…

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