Stream of Consciousness

Writing about what I am going to change next year is really rough right now. I am just trying to make it to the end of this year in one piece. Yes I have had thoughts about how I am going to change things in the middle of class, but I haven’t really sat down and thought about it. I am not sure even where I will be next year. That’s what the summer is for. But here goes nothing…

…I will be stricter with calculators. They wont steal batteries. They will each have numbers assigned to them and the numbers will not change…

…I will not teach calculator programs until the very end. I wish I had hammered the basics even more. I should have stayed on some subjects longer…

…I want to plan out my own schedule for the year. The kids will know when every test is for the fall and spring semesters separately. The fall semester I would randomly just say we are having a test this week or next Monday. This semester I have gotten better at but not what I want…

…I want to have better organization on the walls in my room. I want the room to have less white space. I have decorated school doors since the 5th grade. My best friend and I use to do it all the time because our mom’s worked in the school. I LOVE decorating classrooms. I had such high hopes for my room. However I quickly learned to change those hopes because my students would ripe them down or write curse words on them. Next year I want stuff up all the time…

…I am sticking with rewards…I need to be more consistent with my consequences. I have noticed that I am not fair. Its not on purpose but its because I have started to make up my own consequences on the fly rather than sticking to a ladder. I want to create a ladder again so everyone knows when they are getting what and why. Because of variables that were not in my control, this was not possible this year, but I am looking to change that next year.

…My overall goal is for the students to take on more responsibility in my classroom from the beginning. They will have organized notebooks. They will write things down and I will do less. They will take attendance. They will work in groups and answer each other’s questions. I am not your mamas!!! That’s what I say these days. I don’t buy your pencils. I don’t keep track of your id. I don’t make sure you aren’t cheating. That’s wasting my energy. You have got to wake up and want to learn. Otherwise its all pointless. …that’s the tail end of a speech that I was giving my classes today….they were off the chain. I cancelled tutoring because I was so tired. I felt guilty.