1. How did today differ from how I expected it to be?
2. What are the high points of the day?
3. What are the low points of the day?
4. What is one experience that caused me to grow today?
5. What am I excited about for tomorrow?
1. Today was a little more stressful than I expected it to be. I implemented a plan I had for that student I was telling you about. I picked up a little journal for him so that maybe he could write down all the bad words that he thinks and say really mean things about people without actually saying them. I ran it by the special education aide that is in class with him, and she thought it would help, so he used it all during class and then took it with him to his other classes. I encouraged him a LOT to write in it when I heard him curse, and he actually did write in it a lot! I told him that no one would read it but me and that I didn't care how mean or bad his language was. He definitely heard that part. He filled quite a few pages and used it in most of his classes! I don't know if it stopped him from saying the things aloud, but at least some of them might have gotten written instead of said. However, he said that one of his teachers saw him with it and said she would take it away if she saw it again. So me and the aide are going to go talk to her to say that it's a tool that we're using to help him. Hopefully she'll understand. It's pretty complicated stuff, helping students. I can understand why most teachers not only don't have the time, but don't have the patience to deal with all their students' problems, especially those who are the most disruptive. It's really tempting to just get them out of class so you can move on. And sometimes that's the best thing to do for the rest of the class. But I'm there to help the students the teacher doesn't have time/patience to help.
2. Doing attendance calls was fun today. There was one parent whose voicemail greeting was, "You know who it is, leave a message." We had a lot of fun coming up with witty messages to leave that parent, such as, "Actually, we don't know who it is, but we hope it is the parent/guardian of______" Dennis even came up with a Rhodes attendance jingle: "Rhodes attendance/Where is your kid?" Obviously none of these are going to be used in real life, but it helps to make a serious task a little silly.
I see all sorts of crazy awesome people on the bus. For example, there was a gentleman today who had an American flag skullcap under a NASCAR hat who was wearing a fanny pack and listening to a CD walkman. Prime people-watching on the Via bus system, friends.
Mystery moment: Every morning I get off the bus near my school, a school bus without a label on the side pulls up to the intersection. It's full of grown men, and they are chanting and clapping constantly as long as I'm within earshot. I think it may be a chain gang from a prison on their way to do work, but I'm not sure. Any way, it makes me happy every morning to hear them chant, because the cheers are upbeat and have happy themes.
3. One of my classes is just proving to be a conundrum. My teacher and I talked about it, and we are really at a loss as to how to get them to behave themselves. It's a madhouse, and the teacher does nothing differently, it's not right after lunch, they're in assigned seats (for those who choose not to move and refuse to sit where they're supposed to). I JUST DON'T UNDERSTAND. Hopefully, the teacher and I can put our heads together and come up with some kind of solution, because they are pretty much standing still and falling way behind the other classes. The problem is incessant talking, even when the teacher stops class and uses all kind of attention-getting tools to get them back on track. It may last for 1 second, no exaggeration. If you have any ideas, PLEASE TELL ME.
4. I grew today when I became more practical about implementing the after school program. Lexie and I created a student-interest survey to hand out to students, but met a roadblock when we realized that we would have to print 800 some odd copies for that. So we got creative and decided to make it into a powerpoint that the teachers would go through with students during their flex period (a sort of homeroom used for enrichment and remediation) while the students record answers on their own sheet of paper. While we were thinking of solutions to the paper problem, my initial reaction was to cling to the idea that I had come up with. But then Meta-Mae, that person who is the real brains of the operation, reminded me that that idea was impractical and not a friend to the trees, so it was silly to cling to it. I'm glad that happened, and that I can be humbled when original plans have to change, because I talk about flexibility being one of my strengths. I think we can all talk about how flexible we are until we're reminded, yet again, that we really don't like change and we really do like things to go our way. I'm a work in progress, kay?
5. I am excited to hand in our proposal for the after school program to the principal tomorrow and get the ball rolling on handing out our student surveys. Also, I'm excited to see how I can better help students in the toughest period to stop disrespecting the teacher. Something has gotta work. Right?
2. What are the high points of the day?
3. What are the low points of the day?
4. What is one experience that caused me to grow today?
5. What am I excited about for tomorrow?
1. Today was a little more stressful than I expected it to be. I implemented a plan I had for that student I was telling you about. I picked up a little journal for him so that maybe he could write down all the bad words that he thinks and say really mean things about people without actually saying them. I ran it by the special education aide that is in class with him, and she thought it would help, so he used it all during class and then took it with him to his other classes. I encouraged him a LOT to write in it when I heard him curse, and he actually did write in it a lot! I told him that no one would read it but me and that I didn't care how mean or bad his language was. He definitely heard that part. He filled quite a few pages and used it in most of his classes! I don't know if it stopped him from saying the things aloud, but at least some of them might have gotten written instead of said. However, he said that one of his teachers saw him with it and said she would take it away if she saw it again. So me and the aide are going to go talk to her to say that it's a tool that we're using to help him. Hopefully she'll understand. It's pretty complicated stuff, helping students. I can understand why most teachers not only don't have the time, but don't have the patience to deal with all their students' problems, especially those who are the most disruptive. It's really tempting to just get them out of class so you can move on. And sometimes that's the best thing to do for the rest of the class. But I'm there to help the students the teacher doesn't have time/patience to help.
2. Doing attendance calls was fun today. There was one parent whose voicemail greeting was, "You know who it is, leave a message." We had a lot of fun coming up with witty messages to leave that parent, such as, "Actually, we don't know who it is, but we hope it is the parent/guardian of______" Dennis even came up with a Rhodes attendance jingle: "Rhodes attendance/Where is your kid?" Obviously none of these are going to be used in real life, but it helps to make a serious task a little silly.
I see all sorts of crazy awesome people on the bus. For example, there was a gentleman today who had an American flag skullcap under a NASCAR hat who was wearing a fanny pack and listening to a CD walkman. Prime people-watching on the Via bus system, friends.
Mystery moment: Every morning I get off the bus near my school, a school bus without a label on the side pulls up to the intersection. It's full of grown men, and they are chanting and clapping constantly as long as I'm within earshot. I think it may be a chain gang from a prison on their way to do work, but I'm not sure. Any way, it makes me happy every morning to hear them chant, because the cheers are upbeat and have happy themes.
3. One of my classes is just proving to be a conundrum. My teacher and I talked about it, and we are really at a loss as to how to get them to behave themselves. It's a madhouse, and the teacher does nothing differently, it's not right after lunch, they're in assigned seats (for those who choose not to move and refuse to sit where they're supposed to). I JUST DON'T UNDERSTAND. Hopefully, the teacher and I can put our heads together and come up with some kind of solution, because they are pretty much standing still and falling way behind the other classes. The problem is incessant talking, even when the teacher stops class and uses all kind of attention-getting tools to get them back on track. It may last for 1 second, no exaggeration. If you have any ideas, PLEASE TELL ME.
4. I grew today when I became more practical about implementing the after school program. Lexie and I created a student-interest survey to hand out to students, but met a roadblock when we realized that we would have to print 800 some odd copies for that. So we got creative and decided to make it into a powerpoint that the teachers would go through with students during their flex period (a sort of homeroom used for enrichment and remediation) while the students record answers on their own sheet of paper. While we were thinking of solutions to the paper problem, my initial reaction was to cling to the idea that I had come up with. But then Meta-Mae, that person who is the real brains of the operation, reminded me that that idea was impractical and not a friend to the trees, so it was silly to cling to it. I'm glad that happened, and that I can be humbled when original plans have to change, because I talk about flexibility being one of my strengths. I think we can all talk about how flexible we are until we're reminded, yet again, that we really don't like change and we really do like things to go our way. I'm a work in progress, kay?
5. I am excited to hand in our proposal for the after school program to the principal tomorrow and get the ball rolling on handing out our student surveys. Also, I'm excited to see how I can better help students in the toughest period to stop disrespecting the teacher. Something has gotta work. Right?
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