Today was great!
Reasons why:
1. My teacher's TFA supervisors came in today to conference with her (and me!) about our issues in class. They had a lot of good ideas, most of which centered around my teacher being herself as much as possible. It was a conflicting message from what the administrators have been telling her (basically to be meaner to the kids) but I think it was really valuable. If you have a personality that can be strict and hard, kids will respect you for that and behave well. But if you have a personality that is more compassionate and caring, you can't MAKE yourself be strict and hard because kids can tell and 1) they won't respect you and 2) you won't like yourself or who you are while you're teaching. And the TFA people complimented my teacher and me for how well we're working in the classroom and said that they'd never seen a TFA/Corps member pair work so closely together. :D
2. Josue cheered outside with us again and (shock!) so did they student that he had been fighting with! Even though having students outside is distracting sometimes and might diminish our cheering a bit, it was amazing to see those boys interact kindly with each other! Also, Josue led one of the cheers with me. :)
3. I told you yesterday about my awesome super hero, Mr. Popular. Well, the next step in our students' imaginative stories is for them to partner with another super hero/villain in class and then use that character to create conflict in their story. A LOT of students, some not even in the classes that I help, chose Mr. Popular as their partner/nemesis! They were telling me about it all day and saying how excited they were to beat up on my superhero. It was awesome! :D
4. 11 students came to after school tutoring today! Almost double from yesterday! And we got some permission slips returned from students for our full program starting next week! Plus, some of my toughest behavior students were there! I'm so excited to spend time with them where I don't have to constantly redirect them and they can see me in less of a structured environment. Hopefully our numbers will keep increasing!
5. One of the students that used to be in a class that I helped got transferred up to Pre-AP. I mentioned him before. Well, he now has class right after one of my most difficult classes. So today, I was cleaning up after that class and I was feeling pretty flustered because they were being pretty disrespectful and off-task. So he comes in and steps on my foot (something he has done every time I've seen him for the past couple weeks). It made my heart smile because I had just been laid low by this earlier class and it was nice to have that familiar sign of "affection" from one of my students. It just made me breathe a little better and laugh a little. :)
6. Every day after class, one student always stands up, puts on his backpack, turns his back to me and says, "Miss, my backpack closed?" Makes me chuckle on the inside every time.
7. One of my more off-task students stayed after school and I helped him catch all the way up with his super hero story board! He was reluctant and may have said that he hated ELA a couple times and may have rejected my high five, but he was ALL caught up by the end, which made me do a dance on the inside! And maybe a little on the outside.
Reasons why:
1. My teacher's TFA supervisors came in today to conference with her (and me!) about our issues in class. They had a lot of good ideas, most of which centered around my teacher being herself as much as possible. It was a conflicting message from what the administrators have been telling her (basically to be meaner to the kids) but I think it was really valuable. If you have a personality that can be strict and hard, kids will respect you for that and behave well. But if you have a personality that is more compassionate and caring, you can't MAKE yourself be strict and hard because kids can tell and 1) they won't respect you and 2) you won't like yourself or who you are while you're teaching. And the TFA people complimented my teacher and me for how well we're working in the classroom and said that they'd never seen a TFA/Corps member pair work so closely together. :D
2. Josue cheered outside with us again and (shock!) so did they student that he had been fighting with! Even though having students outside is distracting sometimes and might diminish our cheering a bit, it was amazing to see those boys interact kindly with each other! Also, Josue led one of the cheers with me. :)
3. I told you yesterday about my awesome super hero, Mr. Popular. Well, the next step in our students' imaginative stories is for them to partner with another super hero/villain in class and then use that character to create conflict in their story. A LOT of students, some not even in the classes that I help, chose Mr. Popular as their partner/nemesis! They were telling me about it all day and saying how excited they were to beat up on my superhero. It was awesome! :D
4. 11 students came to after school tutoring today! Almost double from yesterday! And we got some permission slips returned from students for our full program starting next week! Plus, some of my toughest behavior students were there! I'm so excited to spend time with them where I don't have to constantly redirect them and they can see me in less of a structured environment. Hopefully our numbers will keep increasing!
5. One of the students that used to be in a class that I helped got transferred up to Pre-AP. I mentioned him before. Well, he now has class right after one of my most difficult classes. So today, I was cleaning up after that class and I was feeling pretty flustered because they were being pretty disrespectful and off-task. So he comes in and steps on my foot (something he has done every time I've seen him for the past couple weeks). It made my heart smile because I had just been laid low by this earlier class and it was nice to have that familiar sign of "affection" from one of my students. It just made me breathe a little better and laugh a little. :)
6. Every day after class, one student always stands up, puts on his backpack, turns his back to me and says, "Miss, my backpack closed?" Makes me chuckle on the inside every time.
7. One of my more off-task students stayed after school and I helped him catch all the way up with his super hero story board! He was reluctant and may have said that he hated ELA a couple times and may have rejected my high five, but he was ALL caught up by the end, which made me do a dance on the inside! And maybe a little on the outside.
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