Holy Egg Yolk!

Welcome back my friends to another exciting edition. This week should be shorter because of the lack of new news but still fun.

Sometimes you have to contain a situation before it gets out of control. So is the case with being a manager with a store. If you let an issue slide and never address it, that problem has the potential to grow into something hazardous. In other words, it's easier to control a fire while it's small before it burns down the entire forest. Case in point: on Wednesday, my Algebra 2 class was getting out of hand even before the class has begun. When the bell rang, students were goofing off by pretending to beat somebody on the ground. Other students were still eating while others were chatting with their friends. Only a few of the students were working on the morning bellwork and it was definitely not an environment where students could focus and work. So before the lesson began I made a speech. Oh, I was mad in my mind but made sure not to sound like that when I was talking to them. Instead, in a calm understanding voice, I gather the class' attention and told them again how the procedure of the class works. I told them that they were behaving like little Junior Highers that need constant guidance. Sophomore in high school are suppose to be more mature and ready to learn. The class routine is very structured. When the bell rings, you are suppose to put away your food, work on the bellwork until we are ready to grade it together. Then once that is turned in, we will go over the day's lesson and the remainder of the time will be given to class work/homework. Then I told them the consequences of their actions. If this keeps up, I will talk with you one-on-one, then if that fails, I will be calling your parents directly and let them know of the situation. After that we will have a conference with Mr. Herring (our assistant principal). I told them that I would have no problem calling each and every one of their parents. Oh, sure they gave me excuses of why they do what they do, but I just go braindead and say, "I know..." I learned that from a series called "Love and Logic." So class has been going better since then. I think that class will continue to improve one way or another.

Also my other classes continue to improve. One of the students who is failing has turned herself around and is trying harder to pass. She turned in her homework in her other classes but I'm still waiting on my homework for my class. I guess one step at a time. She is on the volleyball team and needs to improve her grade so she can go back on the team. Another student who is also struggling has still not turned in his homework for the past two weeks, and I need to call his parents again. The students are beginning to learn that coming in early at 7am for extra help pays off as well as studying. They thought that they didn't need to study for my classes but when they see their grades they're sorely mistaken. I always get asked, "Why'd you give me this grade?" In response, "I didn't give it to you. You gave it to yourself. Congratulations!" Okay, I'm not that sacrastic but I do let them know that the grade is a reflection of how hard you worked. And if you work that hard to deserve a C then you know that you did your best and I can ask nothing more from you. "Huh?" Whatever?

Anyways, I hope you're enjoying your weekend or weekday (I'm writing this on a weekend). Let me know if you have any questions and leave me a comment! See ya later!

Work and Play

Hello folks, and welcome back to another exciting edition. Today we'll be talking about mixing work and play at school. Oh, but I'm not talking about myself. I'm talking about my students.

It seems that whenever I assign any homework and they don't finish it on time, I get blamed by them for assigning too much homework. Nevermind that I give them 30 minutes in class to finish or that you have several days to do it sometimes. Oh, no, let's not care about that. Instead, they can only focus on the negative. You know what? I'm not in it to be their friend. Sure, they are good kids, no doubt. However, this is not some buddy-buddy relationship. I'm not in there for their friendship and trying to be "cool." I have my cool friends outside of school. Instead, I'm trying to earn their respect and let them know that I want them to succeed. Now, I wouldn't be very good at letting them succeed if I gave them credit when they did not do any work. I would be giving in to their bad habit. Instead, I try to encourage them to work hard through difficult problems. Use their problem solving skills to develop their thinking caps. Be creative with their thought and work hard always. I know it's tough, but they are a good group of kids. Growing pains can be hard, but we all have to go through them.

So today I had make-up exam for chapter 2 in my algebra 2 class. I reminded the students several times every day this week. So today I am talking with a few of my students who did not do so well on the previous exam and suggested that they retake the test today. You know what some of my responses are? One girl said, "Well, I have so much going on and there's just a lot of things happening today." So I told her repeatedly that I have mentioned that the make up exam is today. She then said, " Well, can I take it tomorrow morning?" Uh, no. Today is the only day. Make a priority. Do what you want to do after school or do the retest. What's more important. Evidently her other event was more important because she didn't show up. Her F still remains to this day. Another girl said exactly the same thing. She said though, "I don't want to miss my club soccer game today and my volleyball game later on. I already missed a soccer game on Tuesday. Can I take the test tomorrow morning?" Well, then I asked, why didn't you show up early at 7am today to take it then. "Oh, that's too early. So can I take it tomorrow morning at the same time?" Uh, no. First, the day to retake the test is today, and second if you didn't show up early today what makes me think that you will show up early tomorrow! I reminded her of her priorities and that it is important to do well in school. I expected her to show up, but she didn't. Her F remains as well. What's even worse is that her volleyball coach came to talk to me later that day. He asked if she took the retest (we previously discussed that he wanted her to take the test) and I told him that she refused and decided that it was more important to show to her soccer game instead. Too say he was upset is an UNDERSTATEMENT! I don't know what he said to her, but she will be mad and dissappointed when Monday comes rolling around.

Too much play, I say. Get your priorities straight. I remind these students that school is important and that it will help you develop life skills. It will help you succeed in life. It will help you get into college. Instead, they are only focused on the here and now. Instant gratification is the reward of the day. Why work hard when I can get what I want NOW! If I can't get what I want when I want it, then it simply isn't worth it. And this is a Christian school! These young ones have a lot to learn but I can relate. It's hard to see the world when you are a teenage with ambition. The important thing is not to give up. Take the opportunities given to you. Always strive to do better. On my algebra 2 retest, I told the students that I would average the retest grade and their previous grade to obtain a new score. If they did worse on the retest, then their original grade stands. There is NO possible way to lower your grade on the retest! Still, not everyone that failed showed up. Is it disgrace? I don't know.

Anyways, I have been in contact with several of the parents and have had several conferences with some of the parents. They are mostly negative for the student but they are very thankful that I am trying to help their child succeed. They are surprised of all the effort that I do to help them and shocked that their child hardly utilizes any of them. They are also glad that I was able to spot these trends of them slipping in their grades while it is still October and they have plenty of time to change their grade around. I'm thankful too that I have their support and that they too want their child to succeed. It's good when parents and teachers work together to help the student. Because in college, this just doesn't happen. You have to be self-motivated.

Anyways, all work and no play makes Mark a sad boy, dawg...

Telephone!

Sorry folks for the delay in posting this article, but things and events happen that can disrupt me from posting every week.

Thanks again for joining another sultry entry into this exquisite piece of ongoings of a teacher's mind. To put it simply, currently I'm tired and exhausted but excited that things are going well today. I'm tired from going to bed late and working on students' homework and attempting to grade them. Keeping everything balanced is essential I discovered and the more I have for them to do, the more we progress in my class. The negative is that I have now plenty of work for me to grade and redistribute to my classes. Also, I quit my side job on the weekends (good-bye Fresh and Easy!) and now I will have more time to enjoy myself and allow myself to relax. It will also be a good time to catch up on things that I have been procrastinating on, such as grading. Rest will finally return as I will not be working everyday of the week. I don't think I had a day off since the beginning of September, I am now starting to feel the pains of that. I could keep doing both things, but I don't have to so I decided to drop one of them. I think it's for the best.

Also this week I feel like I am coming to class unprepared but everything is planned out. I have homework to give the students and there are plenty of things for us to cover. However, I am trying to teach for mastery of this subject and the students have a hard time with understanding some of the difficult concepts. It's not all the students but a few. So now I'm in a dilemma...I want to continue moving forward and cover more material, but I feel like the students are overwhelmed currently with tests, quizzes, and homework. On the other hand, I don't want to make my classes seem so easy for the students that do understand the material. Obviously they understand the concepts that are occuring and in fact some of them consider it boring. That is why a few of them are disruptive and need to be spoken with ever so often. So I'm not sure what to do but I'm favoring the former. I think I will hit the brakes soon and slow down the train. I think a good review is in order and perhaps a review game where the students have to work together in groups. That way I can allow the smart students help those students who are having trouble. Less teaching for me and more work for the students. Hehehehe...

Also this week I began calling parents for students who have not been turning in the homework. Some students are really in trouble because they have not been turning in homework for the last two chapters and it really reflects on their test and quizzes. I've talked to each of these students previously but several of them have rejected my help or refuse the extra assistance. They think that all this will just blow over and that they don't have to put any effort in trying to understand it. WRONG! It is imperative that they understand the material and succeed. That's life. When something is hard and you don't understand, find a way and work at it. I don't think I have had a job yet where I didn't have to work hard at it to be successful. If I didn't get something I made time to ask for questions and get help. I learned that eventually but I'm trying to help these kids out now. So anyways, the parents have been supportive and I have finally gotten some material in from a few of the students and even a few have come in to see me for extra help. Previously I had an extra morning help hour on Monday, Thursday, Friday but few people would show; I'm hoping more will show as the semester continues and I keep calling these students' parents. However, some students still refuse to turn in their work and one even asked me for extra credit! EXTRA CREDIT!!! You didn't even turn in the original work! Why would I give you EXTRA work to do?! Sure we can discuss extra credit but once the original work is turned in. That's the deal.

So for me, it's more phone calls to parents both positive and negative. We'll see how things turn out, but so far it's been positive. The experience has been challenging but good. At least I don't want to quit yet like at my first job (thanks Teledyne!), and I think this is something that I can work at. I don't know, maybe I'll actually enjoy this teaching gig.

Well, I've got to go teach now and I'll talk to you later...