I hate planning Sundays. Finished planning and went to bed last night at 12:30. It's now 5:10. I have showered, dressed, and am now halfway through my bowl of cereal. I'll be off to Wal-Mart before school when I'm finished.
Few new things this week: I am sending a daily discipline report home on my pet project. In order to go to PE, he has to bring it back every day signed. All my 7th graders have new lockers. Because I have two fewer than I used to, I can now use the top shelf for my stuff. This will be better for the students since they will all have their own cubby (until now, I had to give some spaces on the top shelf divided by tape. Obviously, this was not enough of a physical divider to keep their stuff with their own things.
The ND club of Mobile wants a little article on us for their newsletter. Here is the paragraph that one of my housemates put together on me. I think it's hysterical. There will be a few (minor) changes to it before we send in the final draft:
"Drew Clary hails from outside of San Antonio, and his first name is not short for Andrew. He teaches Social Studies at Most Pure Heart of Mary, presiding over seventh grade homeroom. He graduated from Notre Dame in 2009, where he served as R.A. at Fisher Hall and studied abroad in London, toiling as an intern for a member of Parliament. Truly dedicated to his craft, Drew is often the last to bed and the first to rise. When not reading The Economist, Drew makes plans for law school. Drew’s other recreations include listening to Taylor Swift and other country artists as well as determining the precise point at which paying YMCA dues finally demands using YMCA gym facilities." (I am still paying my monthly membership, but have only gone once - to pick up my card.)
Monday, November 30, 2009
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Nuclear. Option.
(Hopefully)
Something's gotta give in my 8th grade class. The students in there who want to learn can't because of the noise and disruptions. The ones who are causing all the noise and disruption obviously don't. Last week I unearthed some workbooks that go along with our textbook (imagine 10 workbooks with guided notes, flow charts, and worksheets of every variety). I'm going to spend most of the drive home tomorrow figuring out which worksheets to use on which day. I'm thinking 2 worksheets on our current unit and another on a past unit to review each day. Plus another for homework. It will be ABSOLUTELY silent all class. Each time a student talks, s/he will owe me a continent with all its countries and capitals labeled (first Asia, then Africa, then Europe, then the Americas). These will all be due at the end of class. If anything is incomplete, it counts against the classwork grade for the day. Once you climb that ladder, I may just call the parents right then and there and put them on the phone with their dear little piece of God's creation.
By the end of the week, I'll be able to tell whether or not I will need to send home 30 worksheets for homework over next weekend. If that happens, I will send home a note with them explaining whey it was necessary. I will explain it to the class as a way to make sure that we catch up with where we need to be. I'm envisioning something along the lines of:
"I don't mean for this to be a punishment. I have a job, and that job is to teach you social studies. Many of you come in here day in and day out and struggle through our lessons with me despite the commotion. However, nobody is learning as much as I would like, and I take the blame. Obviously I cannot get the job done. So, for the foreseeable future, I plan to let you work in silence on worksheets and activities that someone else wrote. Hopefully this will let those of you who want to learn figure things out. If you talk, I will assume that you are finished and give you a continent to label. Whatever classwork I hand out this period is due at the end of the period. If anyone talks, we will all need homework tonight to reinforce the material."
Hope everyone's Thanksgiving was nice. I spent an extremely relaxing and beautiful break in Tampa, Florida. I'm heading to Austin, TX for an ACE retreat next weekend. My community is flying out on Thursday night, which mean I have this (four-day) week, a five-day week, and then finals week (five days) before Christmas break. I'm not sure when I'm going to start the day-by-day countdown. Possibly when I get home. Tomorrow.
Happy Holidays!!!
Something's gotta give in my 8th grade class. The students in there who want to learn can't because of the noise and disruptions. The ones who are causing all the noise and disruption obviously don't. Last week I unearthed some workbooks that go along with our textbook (imagine 10 workbooks with guided notes, flow charts, and worksheets of every variety). I'm going to spend most of the drive home tomorrow figuring out which worksheets to use on which day. I'm thinking 2 worksheets on our current unit and another on a past unit to review each day. Plus another for homework. It will be ABSOLUTELY silent all class. Each time a student talks, s/he will owe me a continent with all its countries and capitals labeled (first Asia, then Africa, then Europe, then the Americas). These will all be due at the end of class. If anything is incomplete, it counts against the classwork grade for the day. Once you climb that ladder, I may just call the parents right then and there and put them on the phone with their dear little piece of God's creation.
By the end of the week, I'll be able to tell whether or not I will need to send home 30 worksheets for homework over next weekend. If that happens, I will send home a note with them explaining whey it was necessary. I will explain it to the class as a way to make sure that we catch up with where we need to be. I'm envisioning something along the lines of:
"I don't mean for this to be a punishment. I have a job, and that job is to teach you social studies. Many of you come in here day in and day out and struggle through our lessons with me despite the commotion. However, nobody is learning as much as I would like, and I take the blame. Obviously I cannot get the job done. So, for the foreseeable future, I plan to let you work in silence on worksheets and activities that someone else wrote. Hopefully this will let those of you who want to learn figure things out. If you talk, I will assume that you are finished and give you a continent to label. Whatever classwork I hand out this period is due at the end of the period. If anyone talks, we will all need homework tonight to reinforce the material."
Hope everyone's Thanksgiving was nice. I spent an extremely relaxing and beautiful break in Tampa, Florida. I'm heading to Austin, TX for an ACE retreat next weekend. My community is flying out on Thursday night, which mean I have this (four-day) week, a five-day week, and then finals week (five days) before Christmas break. I'm not sure when I'm going to start the day-by-day countdown. Possibly when I get home. Tomorrow.
Happy Holidays!!!
Monday, November 16, 2009
New Happenings at Heart of Mary!!!
We are getting a school-wide discipline system put in place over the course of the next few weeks. I think we are going to try out different segments of it for the rest of this semester, and then probably hit the ground running with it after Christmas break. What does this mean??? All the teachers will be on the same page, and it means that we will have DETENTIONS!!!!!!
Somehow, some way, my classes have settled back down. I'm still not really sure what made them get all riled up for that month and a half (and I'm even less sure of what has gotten them to settle back in at least a bit). Part of it may be that my 8th grade class just succeeded in having a class average on my last test that was well under 50%. I have a few make-up tests left to grade, but it is going to stay in the vicinity of 45% I think.
I have offered my 8th graders the opportunity to have an outdoors class on Fridays when we can come in and function well from the outset of class three days in a week. My 7th graders are going to be able to tell me how to shave my facial hair for the rest of the semester if they can do the same thing for five school days in a row. The poor 6th grade class has been slipping quite a bit towards the example that the higher grades have been setting for them. So a couple of the teachers (including yours truly) has come down pretty hard on them. As of right now, both 6th and 8th grades will be having silent class periods until we can successfully do it. Today my 8th grade class sounded exactly how a classroom should sound. A few comments, questions, and conversations were going on about the work and assignments, but nothing else. Unfortunately, I had told them to be silent, not just to be appropriate. So, we're going to keep it up until we get it right.
Well, I'm exhausted. I'm either going to bed now (9:15) and waking up at 3:30 or 4, or I'm going to try to stay up another couple hours and get up around 6. I think I'm going to opt for the first option. So, good night!!
PS - If you send me an email or some other form of communication and don't hear back from me in a day or two, send a follow-up because that probably means I forgot or didn't see the initial email/call/whatever it was.
Somehow, some way, my classes have settled back down. I'm still not really sure what made them get all riled up for that month and a half (and I'm even less sure of what has gotten them to settle back in at least a bit). Part of it may be that my 8th grade class just succeeded in having a class average on my last test that was well under 50%. I have a few make-up tests left to grade, but it is going to stay in the vicinity of 45% I think.
I have offered my 8th graders the opportunity to have an outdoors class on Fridays when we can come in and function well from the outset of class three days in a week. My 7th graders are going to be able to tell me how to shave my facial hair for the rest of the semester if they can do the same thing for five school days in a row. The poor 6th grade class has been slipping quite a bit towards the example that the higher grades have been setting for them. So a couple of the teachers (including yours truly) has come down pretty hard on them. As of right now, both 6th and 8th grades will be having silent class periods until we can successfully do it. Today my 8th grade class sounded exactly how a classroom should sound. A few comments, questions, and conversations were going on about the work and assignments, but nothing else. Unfortunately, I had told them to be silent, not just to be appropriate. So, we're going to keep it up until we get it right.
Well, I'm exhausted. I'm either going to bed now (9:15) and waking up at 3:30 or 4, or I'm going to try to stay up another couple hours and get up around 6. I think I'm going to opt for the first option. So, good night!!
PS - If you send me an email or some other form of communication and don't hear back from me in a day or two, send a follow-up because that probably means I forgot or didn't see the initial email/call/whatever it was.
Friday, November 13, 2009
Happy Friday!!!
Yesterday was Monday/Thursday because Monday and Tuesday I enjoyed at home courtesy of Hurricane Ida. Wednesday was Veterans' Day. So...one very short week!!
Yesterday was awesome.
Today was awesome until lunch. I just wrote up my favorite student (I think I've been calling him my "pet project" on here lately). I took 10 minutes in the cafeteria waiting on the boys to be quiet. Finally, they did, and I told them that anyone who talks would get a pink slip (office referral). Talking was the mildest thing on my pet project's referral, and there was a list of 8 specific things that he did between the cafeteria and the classroom that were not following instructions and/or very disrespectful and rude.
I think suspension #3 is coming up...but I'm not sure. My principal is calling home.
I sent 5 7th graders out of my class this morning because they came in and wouldn't sit down and do their work after 3-5 minutes of constant reminders. Yesterday, I sent 4 8th graders down to the office because they could not function in class. We'll see if today's any better.
Yesterday was awesome.
Today was awesome until lunch. I just wrote up my favorite student (I think I've been calling him my "pet project" on here lately). I took 10 minutes in the cafeteria waiting on the boys to be quiet. Finally, they did, and I told them that anyone who talks would get a pink slip (office referral). Talking was the mildest thing on my pet project's referral, and there was a list of 8 specific things that he did between the cafeteria and the classroom that were not following instructions and/or very disrespectful and rude.
I think suspension #3 is coming up...but I'm not sure. My principal is calling home.
I sent 5 7th graders out of my class this morning because they came in and wouldn't sit down and do their work after 3-5 minutes of constant reminders. Yesterday, I sent 4 8th graders down to the office because they could not function in class. We'll see if today's any better.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
The Weekend
So...Friday I was told to take the 8th grade class to PE by myself. I didn't really want to, so I just took a stack of pink slips and told them that I would give my instructions once. If you don't want to follow them, fine. Keep messing around, I'll just write you up on a pink slip.
I wrote 8 pink slips. Just in PE.
I wrote several more earlier in the day during class. This is part of my attempt to crack the whip.
I caught up on grades, but have decided to watch a movie before dinner instead of plan for the week. Luckily I only have to plan for 2 days. We get Wednesday off for Veteran's Day. That, plus I'm testing in 6th and 8th grades this week means that it should be a somewhat light week (hopefully).
At the end of Friday, Sister Nancy told us all to expect this week to have a much shorter roster. We'll see if she actually follows through on those phone calls this weekend.
We went to Pascagoula last night for a little party. It was fun. There were four from our community, and 4 from New Orleans in addition to the seven from Pascagoula. It was called "Livabetes: Nobody's dying today" in honor of one of the Pascagoula ACErs that has diabetes. We had doughnuts on a string, diabetes trivia, and some other fun competitions.
Tuesday night we're planning to head over to Pensacola and have Thanksgiving dinner (early), and then next weekend is ACE-giving in Baton Rouge.
Have a good week!
I wrote 8 pink slips. Just in PE.
I wrote several more earlier in the day during class. This is part of my attempt to crack the whip.
I caught up on grades, but have decided to watch a movie before dinner instead of plan for the week. Luckily I only have to plan for 2 days. We get Wednesday off for Veteran's Day. That, plus I'm testing in 6th and 8th grades this week means that it should be a somewhat light week (hopefully).
At the end of Friday, Sister Nancy told us all to expect this week to have a much shorter roster. We'll see if she actually follows through on those phone calls this weekend.
We went to Pascagoula last night for a little party. It was fun. There were four from our community, and 4 from New Orleans in addition to the seven from Pascagoula. It was called "Livabetes: Nobody's dying today" in honor of one of the Pascagoula ACErs that has diabetes. We had doughnuts on a string, diabetes trivia, and some other fun competitions.
Tuesday night we're planning to head over to Pensacola and have Thanksgiving dinner (early), and then next weekend is ACE-giving in Baton Rouge.
Have a good week!
Thursday, November 5, 2009
A day in the life of one of my students...
...would not be very fun right about now.
I asked the 6th grade teacher why her class was on silent lunch for the next 10 days. She said because they were chatty in class. I was like, "Wow, my class is way worse. I wonder if that could work."
Because I don't want to seem completely arbitrary and unfair, I told them that if anyone talked or was out of line on the way back to the classroom, our class would have silent lunch tomorrow. They didn't even make it out of the door of the cafeteria. I told them that the next sound would earn us all of next week. We made it silent and in line until we were almost to the classroom, but then we earned ourselves another week of it. One kid started talking back (he does that a lot), so I gave him his own personal two weeks after that. He kept saying, "I don't care! So? Add another one!" so I offered to extend his silent lunch to Christmas if he wanted (which, thankfully, isn't as far off as it sounds), and he literally stopped mid-breath. It was very funny.
A few of my "borderline" kids (as far as behavior goes) do not take these consequences very well, but I'm tired of putting up with mediocre behavior from the rest of the class because I want to overlook things to sometimes get mediocre behavior from a few "borderline" cases. So, we'll try to work through the few really bad attitudes, but in the long run, I think this will shape up a large number of kids in the class.
This means that the second step of my management plan - silent lunch - now means that you owe me 10 copies of the mission statement. And, just so you have more than my word to prove that it's long, I will type it out for your reading enjoyment (maybe you could even try writing it 10 times yourself to see what it's like living under Mr Clary's reign):
"The mission of Most Pure Heart of Mary School is to prepare students for leadership by providing a strong educational program which engages the student in the learning process, assists conscience formation based on Christian values in the Catholic tradition, and cultivates respect and responsibility."
Oh, by the way: for each student that talks either at lunch or in the line back from lunch, I'm adding a day to the silent lunch reign of terror. After next week, if they start having consistently silent lines, I will probably let them earn back days of the end if they can be quiet at the beginning of the school day. (Yeah, I know, I always end up being a softy at least a little.)
I asked the 6th grade teacher why her class was on silent lunch for the next 10 days. She said because they were chatty in class. I was like, "Wow, my class is way worse. I wonder if that could work."
Because I don't want to seem completely arbitrary and unfair, I told them that if anyone talked or was out of line on the way back to the classroom, our class would have silent lunch tomorrow. They didn't even make it out of the door of the cafeteria. I told them that the next sound would earn us all of next week. We made it silent and in line until we were almost to the classroom, but then we earned ourselves another week of it. One kid started talking back (he does that a lot), so I gave him his own personal two weeks after that. He kept saying, "I don't care! So? Add another one!" so I offered to extend his silent lunch to Christmas if he wanted (which, thankfully, isn't as far off as it sounds), and he literally stopped mid-breath. It was very funny.
A few of my "borderline" kids (as far as behavior goes) do not take these consequences very well, but I'm tired of putting up with mediocre behavior from the rest of the class because I want to overlook things to sometimes get mediocre behavior from a few "borderline" cases. So, we'll try to work through the few really bad attitudes, but in the long run, I think this will shape up a large number of kids in the class.
This means that the second step of my management plan - silent lunch - now means that you owe me 10 copies of the mission statement. And, just so you have more than my word to prove that it's long, I will type it out for your reading enjoyment (maybe you could even try writing it 10 times yourself to see what it's like living under Mr Clary's reign):
"The mission of Most Pure Heart of Mary School is to prepare students for leadership by providing a strong educational program which engages the student in the learning process, assists conscience formation based on Christian values in the Catholic tradition, and cultivates respect and responsibility."
Oh, by the way: for each student that talks either at lunch or in the line back from lunch, I'm adding a day to the silent lunch reign of terror. After next week, if they start having consistently silent lines, I will probably let them earn back days of the end if they can be quiet at the beginning of the school day. (Yeah, I know, I always end up being a softy at least a little.)
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
New Developments...
Two students were expelled last week. Not sure if I mentioned that. Neither had been much, if any, trouble in class, but they had a very vicious fight.
Today two of my 7th graders were sent home because they could not settle down and get to work this morning. Both of their parents said this is the first they've heard of an issue. I provided my parent communication documentation for Sister Nancy. She was very happy with it, but it was very incomplete because for over a month I did not write down every single time that I talked to my student's mom in the carpool line.
One of those two (the one whose communication log I gave to Sister Nancy) was actually sent to the 5th grade classroom today because his parents could not come pick him up. I sent some work down to him, as did the other teachers. I gave him the two worksheets we did today in class. A 5th grade girl looked it over for him and pointed out every question he missed (all of them). I also sent him an assignment that required some writing. His paragraph was read to the 5th grade class, and they laughed at how poorly-written it was. The 5th graders have to write definitions from the dictionary as punishment. So that was my student's punishment too. He was assigned 200 definitions, and after about an hour and a half, the 5th grade teacher asked two of her boys to define as many as they could in 10 minutes. They both doubled the number of definitions he wrote in his hour and a half. By lunch, he was completely under her control. It was really funny.
I got approval to re-institute my old discipline system: one verbal warning, silent lunch, miss pe, call home. So that will start in earnest tomorrow. I borrowed a tactic from the 1st grade teacher that I am using with 6th grade. Instead of writing their names on the board, I make them get up and do it. They hate it. I'd do it with 7th and 8th grades, but there's no telling what kind of nicknames and other random trash would end up on the board. I am also starting to assign 10 copies of the school's mission statement for misbehavior. The kids hate it. But it's really effective. I've done it for 2 or 3 days now, and they realize that I'm serious about it and that nobody's falling through the cracks. So...presto! Our lines are now silent and straight.
8th grade is still out of control. But luckily I didn't have to see them in class today. They went to the Catholic high school for their tour of the place, did the pep rally, etc. So...I only had to teach 2 classes today. It was nice.
OK, gotta plan.
Today two of my 7th graders were sent home because they could not settle down and get to work this morning. Both of their parents said this is the first they've heard of an issue. I provided my parent communication documentation for Sister Nancy. She was very happy with it, but it was very incomplete because for over a month I did not write down every single time that I talked to my student's mom in the carpool line.
One of those two (the one whose communication log I gave to Sister Nancy) was actually sent to the 5th grade classroom today because his parents could not come pick him up. I sent some work down to him, as did the other teachers. I gave him the two worksheets we did today in class. A 5th grade girl looked it over for him and pointed out every question he missed (all of them). I also sent him an assignment that required some writing. His paragraph was read to the 5th grade class, and they laughed at how poorly-written it was. The 5th graders have to write definitions from the dictionary as punishment. So that was my student's punishment too. He was assigned 200 definitions, and after about an hour and a half, the 5th grade teacher asked two of her boys to define as many as they could in 10 minutes. They both doubled the number of definitions he wrote in his hour and a half. By lunch, he was completely under her control. It was really funny.
I got approval to re-institute my old discipline system: one verbal warning, silent lunch, miss pe, call home. So that will start in earnest tomorrow. I borrowed a tactic from the 1st grade teacher that I am using with 6th grade. Instead of writing their names on the board, I make them get up and do it. They hate it. I'd do it with 7th and 8th grades, but there's no telling what kind of nicknames and other random trash would end up on the board. I am also starting to assign 10 copies of the school's mission statement for misbehavior. The kids hate it. But it's really effective. I've done it for 2 or 3 days now, and they realize that I'm serious about it and that nobody's falling through the cracks. So...presto! Our lines are now silent and straight.
8th grade is still out of control. But luckily I didn't have to see them in class today. They went to the Catholic high school for their tour of the place, did the pep rally, etc. So...I only had to teach 2 classes today. It was nice.
OK, gotta plan.
Monday, November 2, 2009
Daylight Savings Ending May Help...
...because I feel like it's 10:00 right now, even though it's barely 6:45.
Sister Nancy has been busy with the classroom across the hall (covering for the teacher who quit last week), so she sent in our director of religious education to "help me get my class settled at the beginning of the day." Which turned into all 65 minutes of 7th grade and most of 8th grade too. So, that was frustrating. But, actually in the middle of writing that last sentence, I got a call back from someone at the Office of Catholic Education, and we talked through a lot of these frustrations. I am also waiting on my supervisor (who touched base with my mentor teacher today) to get back to me with some thoughts/ideas.
I have one idea that I'm going to try tomorrow with 8th grade. I am going to try to set up the class as one of the ancient Chinese dynasties did - the emperor chose governors to run each region. Since my classroom is now arranged with desks of four tables, I am going to try to put one person in charge of each table and make him/her responsible for the table. That goes for discipline issues, staying on task issues, and anything else that comes up. We'll see how that goes.
Sister Nancy has been busy with the classroom across the hall (covering for the teacher who quit last week), so she sent in our director of religious education to "help me get my class settled at the beginning of the day." Which turned into all 65 minutes of 7th grade and most of 8th grade too. So, that was frustrating. But, actually in the middle of writing that last sentence, I got a call back from someone at the Office of Catholic Education, and we talked through a lot of these frustrations. I am also waiting on my supervisor (who touched base with my mentor teacher today) to get back to me with some thoughts/ideas.
I have one idea that I'm going to try tomorrow with 8th grade. I am going to try to set up the class as one of the ancient Chinese dynasties did - the emperor chose governors to run each region. Since my classroom is now arranged with desks of four tables, I am going to try to put one person in charge of each table and make him/her responsible for the table. That goes for discipline issues, staying on task issues, and anything else that comes up. We'll see how that goes.
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