Well I think I am ahead in the battle of the students. I am not sure they might be just giving me some false hope but I was actually able to let my 7/8 grade Social Studies class leave on time yesterday. We are trying hard to learn to respect each other and other peoples property, and to take responsibility for our own learning. I don't allow gum chewing in my classroom due to the amount of gum under the desk and on the floor so that has been one battle. I now have the kids (mostly girls) spit their gum out into my hand so that I know it is being spit out otherwise they just fake it and I am asking them again 10 minutes later to get rid of the gum. Or other big problem is theft - The school provides everything - pencils, paper, folders etc, so first of the kids don't take care of anything and they expect a new pencil everyday. Nope, so then then they started just taking stuff off of my desk. Well, finally Wednesday afternoon during my prep hour I went and visited the other classes and figured out who had taken my good pen off of my desk - when his class was over I informed him that he had 30 seconds to return it to me or else I was reporting it stolen to the Site Administrator. I got my pen back - 10 minutes into my next class my pen is again missing - so the 7/8th grade Social Studies class once again stayed after class - low and behold a student found my pen by the trash can. Nothing disappeared off of my desk today.
Life continues on here - The temperature has started to drop. I wore a turtleneck and sweater vest in school today - and wore a jacket and light gloves while walking over. However, some of the kids have yet to notice the drop in temperature and continue to go barefoot and wear shorts and t-shirts.
I have a class tomorrow with the other two new teacher - It is a cultural class and since one of our "new" teachers grew up in one of the near by villages we were kind of hoping we could have him be our own private guess speaker but nope - at least we have all the answers. It is a district wide training and so we will be doing it via the Polycom (interactive TV).
Alright I really should get going home and to bed. Don't hesitate to e-mail me.
3 comments:
That gum in your hand thing is DISGUSTING! lol Do you wear rubber gloves? heheh I'm glad you got your pen back! I totally relate to your pen attachment! Sounds like you're taking charge... GOOD JOB! (=
I'm probably going to sound like a goob here. The persistent removal of items: is it a cultural thing, a laziness thing, a community property thing, an sense of entitlement thing, or something else entirely? I see the community oriented activities, such as everyone helping out in the hunt, and there's this sub-plot of property moving from desk to elsewhere and it just got me to wondering.
Or they could simply be messing with you.
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