Once again, I find myself apologizing for not posting in a while. I'm torn between thinking that my schedule is really that hectic, or thinking that my time management needs tweaking. Since this is a crazy semester for me, I'm going to say the former even though I'm sure it's a combination of the two.
Moving along, today is my first official day off from teaching! It's Presidents' Day which means the High School is off today (us college kids didn't come out so well since we still had classes, but luckily I came out on the good side and didn't have any other classes today). So although I most definitely can't use today to do nothing but catch up on napping and Youtube videos, it's infinitely better because the alarm wasn't going off at 5am.
I sincerely hope my students used their long weekend to sleep and blow off steam, however. I don't know if I was oversensitive, stressed, or what when I taught on Friday, but a lot of the students were in fine form by way of giving the student teacher a hard time. I had one try to tell me how to teach, another making a snide remark about my being a magician when I erased the SMARTBoard, and the rest either wanted to just sit and stare at me or not stop chatting for five seconds. One little Judy Attitudy, upon my asking why he wasn't writing, told me that he didn't need to take notes; he memorized them.
I also gave them their grades on presentations I had them do. They were out of 12 points, and if they followed my directions (they each had to say 3 commands for example), it would have been simple to get full credit. I didn't even make them memorize it, all they had to do was read their papers (which I had given them time to work on the day before they presented). And boy were they upset. But the odd thing was, the students I expected to get mad (the ones who got 8 or less) didn't say anything and those who got 10 or 11 out of 12 were on me like rockets, demanding to know why they got points off.
And they were incredibly rude about it.
There were no, "can I ask you about my grade?" or "I don't understand why..."Nothing like that. I was prepared after first period for the reactions but that first class took me by surprise. One boy was so outraged that he stomped out of the room ripping up his rubric (he was also one of the boys who refused to work when I gave them the opportunity, blew off the presentation, and received the grade he had earned). But my co-op did tell me later that grades like these are tough and the students almost always react this way, justified or not. She also reminded me that these are the types of situations that I have to just roll off my back, since many students are still under the impression that doing little or no work should still warrant an A.
I'm hoping that, like me, the students just needed a day to breathe. And maybe this means that they're more comfortable around me, since they're willing to come up to me now for pretty much anything instead of just wondering who I am and why I'm there every day. Either way, I hope I figure it out soon...
They're having a substitute on Friday, and I'm teaching.
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