This week was the shortest week in history! We didn’t have school on Wednesday because our high school volleyball team made it to state (hooray!) and then we had off on Friday because of conferences on Monday and Tuesday night.
Having no school on Wednesday was the weirdest thing! (This is definitely a small town thing–I’ve never seen that in my life in the suburbs–we’re too big for something like that to ever happen!) But the kids were loving it. It was a mini-weekend in the middle of the week! We had a small assembly and celebration that shortened some of our class periods. We even had an assembly for Veteran’s Day this week! Crazy!
It was really hard to rein in the kids, but we did our best. Something that I did to help connect Veteran’s Day to classes was bringing out some Veteran’s Day reading for my Book Club.
As I reflect on this super-short week, what I’ve really taken away is flexibility. To be an effective teacher amidst constant change, I have to switch up activities, work around schedule changes, and be open to new ways of doing things. That’s what I’ve learned the most over these few days–the only constant in the classroom is change, and I always need to be prepared to change things and try new ways of teaching.
One of my biggest challenges, so far, is with classroom management. Coming in during the middle of the year has made me work to be a lead teacher in the classroom. I have the students’ respect, but there are disruptions and distractions that happen, I think, because I haven’t been able to establish myself as a lead teacher from day one.
Goal for next week: work on classroom management and come up with strategies that engage students and encourage self-motivated, self-directed behavior.