My Biggest Challenge?

Waking up in the morning! Ha.  Well in some ways this is true.  Waking up each morning after a bad day is hard, but I think this is really covering up a larger issue that I am dealing with – a very monotonous schedule.  This is my first full-time job.  Up until now, I have been in school myself.  My day-to-day life was very flexible.  But now I do the same thing each and every day and it all revolves around school.  Yes I try and give myself Saturdays off, but you can’t help the random thoughts about school.  I have even started dreaming about school!  It’s so consuming and sort of boring? The actual job isn’t boring, but the routine is.  I can’t be as spontaneous as I would like.

Monotony has been a personal struggle.  Thinking about my struggles in the classroom is a whole other bag of chips.  A quick list may work better:

-       By the end of the day, I am exhausted, the kids are exhausted and everyone is acting up ten times worse than I imagine they would if I had them in the morning and to make matters worse my room is hot and smelly from a long day.  I really struggle with treating my 4^th block fairly. I tend to get short with them.  I know they are tired but what they fail to understand is that I am too!! I stand all day and I have to be in that room all day.  If everyone would just shut-up then a) there wouldn’t be so much hot air in the room b) I wouldn’t waste so much time disciplining and I could help you more and c) I would be happier and less mean. So there is definitely room for improvement on everyone’s behalf during 4^th block.

-       Of course classroom management needs to be improved…basically I need to be more consistent on consequences.   EVERYONE who stands gets a check not just every third person.

-       Third block using the bathroom!  Here is the situation.  At the beginning of the year we went to the bathroom post lunch.  The little rascals decided they wanted to lock themselves in the bathroom and start banging on the doors and making a ruckus. Silly them – I took away bathroom privileges.  So some __(adjective)__  girls decided to complain to the assistant principal about this and they told I must allow them to go to the bathroom after lunch.  After telling them how my class acted when they were given that privilege, they said okay let them go 2 at a time.  FABULOUS – now I get to have children in and out of my room for 45 min.  That’s not disturbing at all!!! So now I say that you can go during independent work only.  Its still a mess because then kids complain about not having enough time for the work.  Moving on to the next challenge…

-       Getting kids to make connections.  For instance, you going to the bathroom when you don’t have to = less time for your work in the classroom.  What about: if everyone would follow directions, Ms. Jones wouldn’t have to spend so much time giving check marks.  Or here is an excellent one: YOUR BEHAVIOR IN CLASS EFFECTS YOUR GRADE. 

I think just about every single “challenge” I am currently facing is something any first year teacher would face no matter what kind of school district they were in.  I am struggling with things, but I suppose I must also point out that there have been improvements from Aug 4^th…thank goodness!