So rough that at the end of the day, long after most of the other teachers had gone home, I had a bit of a breakdown. I always thought that the interns who told me that they went home and cried every night were being hyperbolic. Not that I do that now by any means, but I can completely understand why they would feel the need to cry so much.
I also now understand why they tell us that we should try to avoid having a job during the internship. It's hard.
Working until ten every night and getting up between 4 and 6, depending on the day has left me extremely sleep-deprived on some days. Those days are the hardest because my emotional stamina is not as high.
Not that this gives me an excuse to strive for any less than a well-managed and productive class time every day.
But I digress...
Thursday was the first day of regular class since two-thirds of the sixth grade were gone to space camp. It was also the day I was supposed to begin regaining control over my first period class.
We did a warm up where they had to answer why they think we have rules and laws. They could tell me EXACTLY why we have them (safety, responsibility, no laws create chaos). Then we went over their behavior contract. They were able to analyze each rule, reward, and consequence. I also created a noise level chart to help hold them accountable for talking out of turn or above an appropriate volume.
So you can probably imagine my surprise when I had to assign seven or eight students silent lunch.
When reflecting on my lesson with Mrs. Ramsay, she told me not to get discouraged. I have to be a wall of consistency when it comes to enforcing rules. Students will have to constantly hit against my wall before they ever learn the appropriate behaviors.
Instead, I feel like I'm the one ramming my head into a wall.
Friday, I ended up giving almost the whole class silent lunch during first period. However, after stopping class to do some major redirecting, all but two earned it off. At the beginning of lunch on Friday, I sat down and talked to them about their behaviors. They knew exactly why they had silent lunch. They told me it was their decisions that led to silent lunch, not mine.
I leveled with them and asked what would help them to achieve appropriate behaviors in my class, offering the school incentive of orange tickets. In so many words, they basically told me that orange tickets would not work as an incentive, so I asked what would. One of them said "cheeseburgers".
He was being serious.
In a split-second moment to make a decision, I informed the child that I would bring him a cheeseburger the week after next if he could keep his behavior on-target for the next week. I know that there are many teachers our there who would say that this was a major misstep on my part, but I did what I thought would work for him. I made it clear that he had to be on his best behavior. Additionally, I informed him that because I'm a broke college student, I couldn't do this every week.
Now, do I think he can earn that cheeseburger? I hate to say this, but not really. At least, not right now. He is one who has consistently had his name on the board for silent lunch at least once a week.
However, I'm hoping that I can graduate him from this extrinsic motivation to an intrinsic motivation over the next couple of weeks by showing him that things in class go a lot more smoothly when he cooperates with my directions. I'm actually hoping that all of them will begin to see this through my repetition of procedures, rewards, and consequences in addition to me addressing their behaviors when assigning punishments.
So, for Monday, I have written the words tabula rasa at the top of the board. For those of you who don't know, tabula rasa essentially translates to "blank slate" in English. Etymologically speaking, it comes from the time when wax tablets were used instead of paper. The Romans would heat the wax tablet and scrape it until it became smooth again, erasing all marks.
My reasoning for writing this on the board and addressing it on Monday is that I want my students to know that we start off with a tabula rasa every day, unless there is behavior that has gone unaddressed from the previous day.
My third/fifth period class was also an interesting experience on Friday, but I'll save that gem of a story for another blog post. This one is already long enough.
He was being serious.
In a split-second moment to make a decision, I informed the child that I would bring him a cheeseburger the week after next if he could keep his behavior on-target for the next week. I know that there are many teachers our there who would say that this was a major misstep on my part, but I did what I thought would work for him. I made it clear that he had to be on his best behavior. Additionally, I informed him that because I'm a broke college student, I couldn't do this every week.
Now, do I think he can earn that cheeseburger? I hate to say this, but not really. At least, not right now. He is one who has consistently had his name on the board for silent lunch at least once a week.
However, I'm hoping that I can graduate him from this extrinsic motivation to an intrinsic motivation over the next couple of weeks by showing him that things in class go a lot more smoothly when he cooperates with my directions. I'm actually hoping that all of them will begin to see this through my repetition of procedures, rewards, and consequences in addition to me addressing their behaviors when assigning punishments.
So, for Monday, I have written the words tabula rasa at the top of the board. For those of you who don't know, tabula rasa essentially translates to "blank slate" in English. Etymologically speaking, it comes from the time when wax tablets were used instead of paper. The Romans would heat the wax tablet and scrape it until it became smooth again, erasing all marks.
My reasoning for writing this on the board and addressing it on Monday is that I want my students to know that we start off with a tabula rasa every day, unless there is behavior that has gone unaddressed from the previous day.
My third/fifth period class was also an interesting experience on Friday, but I'll save that gem of a story for another blog post. This one is already long enough.
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