Trying to Find a Balance
Still trying to find a balance within so many things. Work and play. The authoritarian-style management of some of my peers and my own ineffective mellow "refuse-to-yell" routine. Rewards and consequences. The temperature in my classroom.
Seriously I wonder if there will ever be a day in my classroom where the temperature is comfortable. All through the Indian Summer it was sweltering without A/C. As soon as it cooled down the furnace started blasting and I actually have to open the windows AND turn on the fan just to make it bearable. With so many factors to consider for student learning (and it's like an enormous jigsaw puzzle of academic and social factors for each individual) never knowing what temperature my classroom will be is yet another complication.
This week has felt like a flashback to the days of ALP. The two days of Thanksgiving vacation seem to have set my class back two weeks at least. And another student (yet to be introduced with her own catchy nickname) has replaced ALP as my nightmare. Although to be fair she wants to do well, she just hasn't figured out that telling me off in front of the class is not the way to go about it. So I'm working hard to reteach rules and expectations and trying to lay the rewards and praise on thick as possible. At least tomorrow's Friday. Like I said as a naive first-week teacher, I'm pretty sure the phrase TGIF was invented by a teacher.
Seriously I wonder if there will ever be a day in my classroom where the temperature is comfortable. All through the Indian Summer it was sweltering without A/C. As soon as it cooled down the furnace started blasting and I actually have to open the windows AND turn on the fan just to make it bearable. With so many factors to consider for student learning (and it's like an enormous jigsaw puzzle of academic and social factors for each individual) never knowing what temperature my classroom will be is yet another complication.
This week has felt like a flashback to the days of ALP. The two days of Thanksgiving vacation seem to have set my class back two weeks at least. And another student (yet to be introduced with her own catchy nickname) has replaced ALP as my nightmare. Although to be fair she wants to do well, she just hasn't figured out that telling me off in front of the class is not the way to go about it. So I'm working hard to reteach rules and expectations and trying to lay the rewards and praise on thick as possible. At least tomorrow's Friday. Like I said as a naive first-week teacher, I'm pretty sure the phrase TGIF was invented by a teacher.
Comments
Not sure I found it in all the time from 1975-2003, but I did have some great years.
Guess I'm just not a balance kinda guy...
Hugh aka Repairman