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.
4 comments:
one suggestion buy a bunch of folders to keep things separated, ie tests, homework, one class from another etc. Grade them on your desk with the folder open when done close foler, also dates.
Those are all pledges I have made/attempted to keep. The hardest is the grading pledge as grading 85 essays takes DAYS to do and usually makes me want to poke my own eye out by the time I'm finished. Even after I stopped grading for grammar, the stultifying topics alone are enough to kill me.
Were we boring writers in high school? I suspect not, but then, maybe Sassy sat at home at night wanting to throw herself off the roof too.
Not sure what your subject area is, but for English these noble goals are almost impossible. Reading 125 essays cannot be accomplished during a planning period -- especially when teachers are often called on to sit in on another class, or parents want conferences.
I'm not convinced that taking work home is all bad. Or at least not as bad as staying in this depressing school building. What's crucial, at least to me, is setting a limit on where and when I do work at home. I try to set aside a specific time and place to do my "homework" just like we suggest to our students.
As for the planning on weekends -- I make that promise to myself every week. Sometimes I do it, sometimes I don't. And I *always* have a better week when I do.
he thinks he'll go to booooooston,
he thinks he'll start a neewwwww life,
with people who eat graaaaaainns
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