First Day Over!

I love coming back to school in the fall.  I love the new notebooks and pens, new students, fall fun and weather.  It really is probably my favorite time of year, just because of the sheer anticipation of the amazing things to come.

The one thing I don't like?  The first day of school.

While I am always thrilled to step back into my teaching life, I have come to loathe the first day.  I don't like not knowing my kids, and I don't like not being able to start.  After completed 7 first days of school as a teacher, I don't feel I'm getting any better at it.  I have so much to share with them, and I want to just dive in.  However, they don't even know the procedure to use the bathroom, so I can't very well have them start composing essays.

This year, just like every other year, I managed to make it through.  I always look forward to the final bell, though, so I can get on with what should be an amazing year.

Things that frustrate me as a 6th grade ELA teacher

By the time kids are in 6th grade, I expect them to know a variety of things.  This apparently is very silly of me, though, as many of them cannot do these simple things.  Here, a list of things that my students do (or don't do) that frustrate me.
1. They do not know which side of the paper to write on.
2. They do not know to bring a pencil and paper to class, even though we tell them every day. 
3. They do not know how to write neatly.
4. They do not know what "double space" means.
5. They do now know do type a written document in Word.
6. They do now know how to staple papers (neatly, in the upper left-hand corner, of course!)

These are things that we do over and over, and they still do not seem to pick up.  I can't imagine their elementary teachers doing all of this for them, so what gives?  Are they really that lazy?  Do they not care?  Do they really not know, even though it's written on the board and I said it a million times?  The world may never know. 

Getting Back At It

I'm very excited for this week.  The first week of school went great, and I'm pumped to get into the real part of school - the learning!  Or, for me, the teaching!  At the recommendation of a friend, I read The Daily 5, which is about literacy and building literacy skills in students.  I loved it, and am implementing it in my seminar and ELA recovery classes.  It's a lot different from what I've done in the past... which is really NO literacy instruction.  Silly me, I thought that's what they learned in elementary school!  Well, obviously, some of them don't quite get it all, and it never hurts for even the good readers and writers to practice!

This week also begins a 6 week health challenge I've enlisted in.  I've gotten pretty off the track in the last few months, and I need to get back at it!  I think it will help make me accountable for my choices in eating and exercising!

New Year

Tomorrow is my 6th "First Day" as a teacher.  By now,  I thought I'd have it all figured out, that I would know what I was doing every day, all the time, and it would all be so easy.

I've found the opposite to be true.  The more I learn about teaching, the more I realize there is to learn.  It's a never-ending process, and when I think I've found the end, it means it's time to go.  I recently read something about how the death of education is when the teacher stops creating, and I truly believe that.  There are times when I'm creating up to the minute of the lesson, and then it changes again before the next hour - try, try again, until it's the right fit!

That being said, I'm not 100% sure what my day will look like tomorrow.  I have no idea how many kids are in my classes.  I am not fully prepared.  However, I do know that I will start with procedures, which is something I've never done before.  This will be my main focus for the first couple of weeks, in hopes that the rest of my year will go well.  I also know that I'm excited to start fresh, in another attempt to do it right.

Back at it...

I love walking into my classroom for the first time of the school year.  It's so clean, and bright, and it leads to me be optimistic about the year to come.  How could students NOT enter this door every day and want to learn?  The realistic side of me knows deep down that there will be a few who do not feel this way.  Perhaps I won't even feel this way every day. 

But, for now, I like think it will be!

Here's to a great school year!

Teaching Philosophies

What I have realized lately, through reading blogs and Twitter posts, and speaking with other educators, is that we all have different purposes as educators.  For example, I feel my goal as an educator is to help prepare my students for life.  Does that include for the next grade level?  Sure.  Does that mean college?  For some.  But what I truly want them to leave with is the ability to read well and write well, to have the skills that will help them get through many situations, whether it be college, a career, or simply 7th grade ELA class.  A co-worker I spoke with, however, thinks that his job is to prepare them for college.  Other teachers may think the goal is to pass The Test.  So, while all of us have goals, and they may overlap, they are still different.  Doesn't this mean that we are all going about what we teach differently?  I'm having a hard time understanding how we can ever improve education when we all have a different end goal in mind. 

I apologize if this is not very well-written.  I was hoping to come up with some answers as I wrote, so I let my thoughts take over, instead of my writing skills :)

Demand Their Best

I've been struggling a long time with the quality of the work my students turn in.  Sometimes I wonder why they bother to do it at all when they obviously put no effort into it, and therefore aren't learning anything.  This morning, it hit me.

I'm not demanding their best.

While I have demanded that they do the work, I've left out the most important part - insisting that they not only do it, but well, with 100% effort. 

I think I've known in the back of my mind that this is what was missing, and just didn't want to admit it.  I know that sometimes I accept what I get because it's easier not to fight it.  I know that by the time 6th hour comes around, I've lost the excitement and, sometimes, the care that I had in first hour. 

Mostly, though, it's because it's easier not to.

I don't like excuses.  I don't accept them from my students.  But I often make them.  I have three kids, and grade papers, and am taking a class.  I have all kinds of stuff going on.

However, the one thing I should not be slacking on, when it comes to my students, is demanding effort.