We've gotta get out of this place

Been having a really crappy time lately. I could whine and complain, but I won't. All day, I've been thinking, gee, maybe I just feel this crappy because I'm leaving. I remembered, before I went to Russia, seeing a graph about culture shock, and how, no matter how long you are away somewhere, your general happiness follows a certain pattern. Sure enough, before you leave, you hit a patch of what the graph calls up and downs. As if teaching wasn't enough of a roller-coaster already, now, when we're getting ready to unload, we have this extra little predisposition to chaos that is entirely unnecessary. My solution - buy a new motorcycle and read about pastured poultry.

The plan

This is a plan to make my teaching life better.
1) Start using tickets as rewards. Start just using them for the first 5 minutes of class. In seat and working quietly when bell rings. Move to in seat, working quietly for the first 5 minutes after the bell rings.

2) Grade only during my planning period. Never, ever, take work home to grade. And grade everything, everyday.

3) Post grade sheets every day or every other day.

4) Do all planning on weekends.

Number four will definitely be the hardest. I still have an extremely difficult time planning. But if I can do these things, I will be happier, and my kids will learn better.

This blog entry is a complaint. Don't feel obliged to read it.

May 24, I hope to have the truck packed and be on the road. I'll miss some of the kids, but I can't do this.

Anna told me that during class, Ben said (again) that classroom management was the biggest problem and the main cause of teachers leaving. I'll agree, but add that it isn't just classroom management, it's personal management too. I can never seem to get ahead, I'm always falling behind on everything (grading is a big one here). I have trouble getting students make up work because I don't even know what we did that day or where we put the extra copies, if there were any. I have no system for keeping things straight.

Oh Mississippi...

Oh Mississippi...

Keep on keeping on...

So, today I collected my first project. In over a year and a half, we hadn't done a project, so I thought what the heck, why not do a project. I'll let you know how they turned out once I grade 'em.

But does anyone have a good strategy for having students review tests that they've taken (and failed, often miserably). Especially when there were always students who were out and need to make up the test later. I feel like they could learn a ton from going back through the test and fixing their mistakes, or at least going through and trying to understand them, but I don't know how to work that process into class at all. If anyone has anything that has been successful for them in this regard, let me know. Right now, I don't even usually hand back tests - I just tell the kids what they got, which seems like such a waste of a learning opportunity.