Today is a day that will live in infamy, at least up until now in my short teaching career. My MT was at a conference all day, and even though a sub was hired, the school had her helping out in other classrooms, under the ridiculously mistaken notion that as long as I was in the room, everything would be fine.
The day started out OK, but I hit a serious roadblock when it was time for math. The kids were extremely rowdy, and to make matters worse, halfway through the lesson I couldn't find the worksheets what I was supposed to pass out, and the entire class disintegrated into chaos.
Although I made a feeble recovery later in the afternoon, it was a day on which I was seriously questioning my career choice. Thankfully, I found comfort and solace in a fellow cohort member's blog entry dealing with a similarly trying day.
Her expert advice included the following:
My MT pulled me aside after class ended to talk things over. Among her suggestions were these:
1. I must nip inappropriate behaviors in the bud
2. Which means that I must develop my ability to engage my whole-class radar
3. Don't ever admit that a lesson is "dry" - must present it as fun, cool
4. Feel free to change course if it feels right
I will chalk today up to a test run, and hopefully do better next time.
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10 years ago
Fred,
ReplyDeleteI'm sure it will get better soon. I've had downright awful days, too. But reading this and thinking about your (Quest) class reminded me of the discussion our cohort had a few months ago about the nature of gifted classes in general. blogged on it, and I was curious what your opinion is.