I was personally surprised by the excitement over Snowflake (drug awareness program). It's not everyday you hear a 13 year-old excited for "warm fuzzies" or voluntarily making glitter posters for the hallway.
Another shock I had was seeing time-out rooms for in-school suspensions. At my middle school, that would have been done in the principal's office on rare occasions. Everyday I pass by these rooms and they are full. Plus, they are at the front of the building. What are the social implications of punishment on display for a middle schooler?
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I'm surprised by how much I am actually enjoying middle school! I am doing 6th grade Math and Science and the students aren’t as intimidating as I thought they would be. I really enjoy the fact that I can teach more content, but I am still having a hard time with dealing with the drama and classroom management part of middle school. On my first day of phase two (Monday) the girls had pom poms try outs and on Tuesday when the list was posted girls were crying left and right. I observed two boys making fun of a girl for not making it and she started crying and yelling at them. The only way I knew how to react was by telling the boys that they were being disrespectful and that they needed to stop now. In my class there isn’t a management problem but in a class I observed which was a different 6th grade team, the students were out of control and talked back to the teacher numerous times. In this situation I was taken back because I hadn’t seen anything like it before. If I was the teacher of that class I would hate coming to school each day! I know that students rebel during this period of their lives but I feel like it was partly the teacher’s fault and that she should reconsider the environment she has set through her management policy.
We were doing Red Ribbon week this week, and like how Katie was talking about Snowflake, the students absolutely loved being involved in it. For those of you that don’t know, Red Ribbon week is a week that talks about healthy living and staying away from drugs. The school not only had morning and afternoon messages and stories about living a healthy lifestyle, they also had guest speakers and everyone took part in door decorations. The school had a competition to see which homeroom could decorate their classroom door the best using limited resources and based around the theme of living a healthy life. It was cool to see how involved these students got and how they even volunteered to give up their lunches to work on it!
Many of the students I have are not afraid to act out or say inappropriate things, because they know nothing will really happen to them. They may be told that what they are doing is disrespectful and to stop, but that’s it. So it’s no wonder the behavior continues. In social studies my students have been working on supply and demand and for the most part, totally don’t get it. They were tested on it and the test was purposely made very easy (my mentor even said so) and I graded them and they all did really bad. This is after they spent so much time on it and the questions really were not that difficult. I think it is because the students do not care and do not want to do any work. The students are very lazy (my mentor agrees). For example, their homework will be to answer 4 short answer questions and more than half do not do it. In class, the teacher does a great job at explaining supply and demand in ways the students will understand, does fun activities, and for the most part engages the students. However, when it is time for them to demonstrate their work, they won’t do it. I would be frustrated as a teacher.
Another example is my mentor teacher asked me to come up with a topic the students could write on when they walked in the room. I asked, “What if they wrote about if they were allowed to vote, who would they vote for and why” because elections are coming up. My mentor said that they could not do that because he knew their responses would all be: “I would vote for Obama, because McCain is a racist” and they would leave it as that. Therefore, my idea was tweaked and even then, students had an answer, but no support whatsoever even though we pushed and pushed for it.
I know these students have no control over what their brains are going through, they can just be tough at times. It’s strange because at times, they are very sweet but then they will have these ‘outbursts’ and say or do something really disrespectful. Also, almost all of them are fine, but there will be a few that get everyone riled up. I really do like that age, so I would love to gain some strategies and classroom management. I want so bad for them to work hard and do a good job.
The first few days of phase 2 I was really excited to be there and really enjoying observing the atmosphere of a middle school. My mentor teaches reading/writing as well as a microeconomics class.
With the election consuming so much of all of our everyday lives and with this election being a milestone in history, my mentor turned the class into a current event class.
I thought this was so neat because she would have articles and packets on issues that help people undestand McCain and Obama's views on issues that these students can relate to. On the CNN website, she found a "kid friendly" page that briefly had explanations of the views on Obama and McCain on issues such as driving laws, taxes, and issues that weren't too complex for these students to grasp. I do think that some of the wording of all of this political talk can be really confusing and I thought it was neat that she was educating these 7th graders on the same issues we know about, but in a way that they can understand.
I'm not sure what will become of the class once the election is over, but I know that the students final project in this class (it's their block class) is for students to create a wiki page on the current events they have discussed.
Outside of social studies, I am seeing a lot of neat strategies being used that I can apply to my elementary ed. classroom as well, however I realized that middle school is not the place for me. The students are disrespectful, they don't listen, and they are just plain obnoxious! I know it comes with that age, but it is definitely a huge transition to make from an el. ed room!
Do you think it is possible to hold a current events portion to the day in an elementary classroom? What would be appropriate to discuss? I know we talked about this last class, but I really like the idea and am not sure where to go with it.
I am surprised how much I miss my fourth grade students. I find middle school a lot colder and more focus on content. I loved fourth grade, because there is more to teach about than just content, but from what I have observed so far in middle school, was that students were in class for an hour and they had to stay focused to learn. I like my mentor teacher, but she is very different than my phase one mentor. I think that this is beneficial for me to see how two different teachers handle different situations. I feel that middle school is a lot of down time, because of all the planning. I don’t really like how the teachers only teach two subjects, because for me I know I would get board only teaching those subjects all year, because I love teaching all subjects. I think that this experience has made me realize how much more I prefer the elementary school verses the middle school. I think that after I get used to the school and the environment my feelings may change a little, however at this time I want my fourth grade students back.
I was really shocked at the fact that there was a police officer in the building, with a gun and hand cuffs, at all times. There was not even a police officer in my high school, let alone my middle school. I find this a little scary, because in elementary school I always felt safe, but at middle school the presence of a police officer questions my safely. I know that there are gangs in the school, and that some students feel that violence is normal. This is not normal to me, and that is why it is such a shock. The culture of the school is very different than my own, and one at which I need some time to get used to and comfortable with.
I am having the hardest time in middle school so far. I know it has only been like three days but I really miss my third grade students. I have always worked with younger students up until 5th grade so this is quite the change for me. I did have 7th and 8th grade for recess but that was different. I must say though that I love the topics taught in 8th grade. I am teaching 8th grade algebra and I love it. It is so much better than teaching the difference between inches and centimeters. I also love teaching science. Our team is supposed to be known as the "bad kids" but as I talked to Greg about, they aren't bad kids they just have some bad behaviors. It's hard for me to adjust just because I am used to a management system in third grade. Otherwise I still know they are kids. Even if they are a lot taller and some of the things that come out of their mouths are disrespectful. They are still kids and I appreciate the way they learn and I am hoping I can become a help to them in the next 12 days. Other than that my students are pumped for snowflake. I have it tomorrow and I am very excited. We had a little bit of a talk about it in homebase and all of the students were like, "We loved the speakers from last year we learned so much." I think it will be a great time and I will let everyone know how it goes.
I know this is kind of a late comment to this post, but today in my class homosexuality was brought up. We are teaching healthy choices sex ed. My teacher did not inform any of the parents about the issues that we are discussing in class. The subject may be a bit awkward for the students but it definitely is necessary. Many of the students need this discussion before entering high school. Eighth grade students are going through very difficult changes and it is important that we teach them to be understanding of people who do have different interest. It is important to not discriminate because of the way people feel.
My eighth graders handled this very well and I felt like they understood how it may feel to be in someone else's shoes.
Making choices is an awesome class and should be required in all eighth grade classes because it teaches the students about consequences and about themselves as human beings.
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