Pray for Snow. My new mantra. Never in my life have I been so grateful for an ice storm on a Sunday evening. The thought of spending the day at home, warm and cozy, reading or writing or watching a movie, has never held the special significance that it now does given my foray into middle school education. Over the past several weeks I have begun to get into a real rhythm within my ninety minute block - silent minute, then 10 minutes of reading the class novel (currently "Hoot"), next Grammar - two sentences of the week's Daily Oral Language skill and ten minutes of practice. What is supposed to follow is 25 minutes of a writing prompt or a writer's workshop, but I just can't seem to get my urban students to attend to this task successfully. They would rather talk, dance, sing, talk to the outlet, go to the bathroom - bubbler - nurse or get thrown out of class, talk... They have quickly learned that I tolerate very little of all of the above except for the talking - teacher-led, of course. We then have a break wherein I check their daily agendas for parental signatures (less than 25% success here) and entry of homework assignment(s) - almost 100% here. Our last 40 minutes consists of vocabulary and reading - whatever the unit may be - currently: House on Mango Street (L.O.V.E. this novel !!!) Bottom line - They Do Not Want To Work. They would rather be Told what to do, Read to, or Other. My heart goes out to these children - they do not appreciate structure - they fear it, challenge it, break it. What they know is exactly the opposite - many of my students do not know who is going to be home at 3:30, let alone in a week or a month. I am wrestling with "Do I want to be there for these kids who only have school to keep them safe?" vs. "Do I want to be in a classroom with supportive families in order that I may hone this craft called teaching?" I'm afraid I may be leaning toward the latter.
One day at a time, I suppose.
1 comment:
I hate to confess this as a school administrator, but this new feeling you have of seeing the bright side of snow and ice storms is part of what keeps teachers feeling young. I still get the same feeling even though it means getting up at 5AM to make the decision. We are supposed to get an ice storm in Michigan tomorrow but it won't start early enough to cancel school. =(
Since you have read many of the early chapters, I wanted to let you know I posted the title chapter last night—a couple more chapters will wrap it up and I’ll be getting back to “normal” at POI.
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