1. It's Time for a Vacation
Students. Teachers. Administration. We all need a break from one another. For as much time as we had off in February, March is always a tough month. No days off and the weather stinks, it is a hard month to slog through. Lately, people are on edge. I have noticed an increase in irritable students, sickness and just overall "blah"-ness. Not to mention, this week, having days of clouds and rain have not helped to do us any favors. Vacation is a week away and cannot come soon enough.
2. Expect the Unexpected
My students are finishing up To Kill a Mockingbird, so I gave them a summative assessment on the end of the book Monday. Typical for my sophomores, about 2/3 of them read the text. But the ones that did seemed to love it. After the assessment, we had small group discussions followed by a larger class discussion using the questions from the assessment as our guide. Those who read were totally engrossed. One girl made a wonderful observation/question, asking if Boo Radley could have potentially had autism or something to that effect. It sparked a whole slew of others to jump in with "I was thinking that too." Made for a great, impromptu look back at the text to see if we could find any clues to see if perhaps he did.
Although, many did not understand that it was Boo who killed Bob Ewell. You win some, you lose some.
3. Last Minute Pity
I try to have high, reasonable standards. But with the last week of the quarter and grades looming, I have had the desperation come out this week. It is both incredibly frustrating, but somewhat unexpected. I had one student who is misplaced in the wrong level (which I have made clear since he joined my class in October) come and ask "what can I do to pass?" When he then told me he did not read To Kill a Mockingbird (the frustrating part), I finally just asked him what did he expect. Here is where he did the unexpected; he agreed with me that he didn't know what to do and that I really shouldn't do anything. It was nice to see him take responsibility for his actions. But now I am left with what to do. On the one hand, he has done super little in my class. On the other, he seems to show remorse and recognition of a job not done. The plights of being a teacher....
What did you learn this week?
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