End of Tri 2

It's been a while since my last post. Between posts I guess you could say that 8th Grade Basketball happened. It took up a lot of my free time, but it was totally worth it. I loved it. Due to the extra time spent in the gym I adjusted my schedule a little. Saturday mornings became my work day at the school. We typically had practice early Saturday and I would just stay and grade and do all my work and copying that needed to be done for the upcoming week. I got behind on my grading early on, but eventually got it all caught up in time for the end of the trimester.

Organization - My organization has been pretty awesome for myself. It's not that I'm not organized (I usually know where everything is), it's just a little sloppy. I've been keeping things in folders and writing all my plans for a unit into the folders as we go through the year. It's been really helpful as I am making notes about what worked and didn't for each lesson for next year. Thanks to my friend, and probably only reader of this, Amy!

S2S - conversations about goals with my principal has been good. I feel I'm on the right track. 

Team - I can't speak enough about the awesome team that I am on. I love coming to school everyday. I say this all the time to people who ask me about how things are going. I literally love them. I hope that I can give as much to them as they have given me this year. 

ISTEP - ISTEP starts this week. I'm nervous. Not because I think my kids don't know the material, but that some of them won't give their best effort and not be extremely serious with the test and just blow it off a little. 

Classroom management - I feel ever since we had 2 four day weeks in a row, that the classroom has been loud at times. I've had to get on them a little more than normal, which I don't like, but I know I can't be a nice guy all the time. Speaking of Classroom Management/Engagement, my teaching partner Ben is changing things up in his class and has instituted a ClassRealm based off of Role Playing Video Games. Check it out here - Follow this Link.

Language Arts - We have LA at the end of the day. I'm not too keen on this as it turns into the loudest time of the day as they are ready to go home and get the day over with. Their attention level usually goes out the window by then. We've talked about changing the schedule for next year a little, but nothing is set in stone yet. 

Reading - We're currently reading the novel Crispin: The Cross of Lead. I'm really liking it. It goes along with social studies and the Middle Ages. I'm a little upset at the effort being put into their packets. I've graded a couple of these this weekend where nothing had been done. I feel like it's my fault because I haven't been checking them during the week and letting them show me how responsible they are. I guess they are showing me that they are not too responsible and I can't really trust them on their own yet. 

Social Studies - we just moved out of the Middle Ages and now into the Renaissance. I really like teaching social studies because it's something that I enjoy learning about as well. 

It's almost spring break which I am totally pumped about. 

I'm out, hoping IU can pull this win off against Purdue.