LifeKnowledge Lesson

Here is a "short" excerpt of my teaching experience yesterday... very short in comparison to what all happened in those short 42 min.

My LifeKnowledge lesson was interesting yesterday... actually it wasn't the lesson as much as the students... I used almost every tactic in my toolbox for classroom management... other than sending them to the principal's office... One student kept continually vocalizing that he doesn't like the class, doesn't want to be in the class, but had no choice, etc., several boys decided to have a pen clicking competition about 2 min. into the lesson, worksheets turned into airplanes, works of art, tiny pieces of paper, etc., answering questions became classroom chaos, 1 student decided to try sleeping, 4 or 5 students wanted to answer all of the questions, several refused to participate in anything, etc. - pretty much everything they could think of in 42 min. except physical violence... oh, and by the way... 10 of the 20-some students have IEP's......Oh the joys of teaching in our public school systems, where we have been "educating" students so well without God, discipline, or respect, that we are churning out disasters that have no respect for authority, and as one of my students so "eloquently" said it when I asked him what he wanted to do for a job when he graduated... "Nothing, I'm going to be a homeless person"... wow, that's a high-class ambition!

BUT... I "busted" some of them... :) (Unfortunately, I imagine that I will have to do that regularly when I start teaching that class)... I found and used my teacher's voice, burned lots of calories moving around the classroom to provide proximal control (which worked - however, the other "chatty", disruptive students across the room would pick back up when I moved to deal with another area), I walked over to the "pen clickers" and told them that they needed to stop clicking their pens and disrupting the class - at which I got very surprised looks - they were trying to push me and see what they could get away with, and I foiled their plan! The student who "fell asleep"... I awakened with "can you please read me your answer to #2... which he hadn't filled out... he turned to his buddy (who had also been cutting up and made up answers instead of writing what he was supposed to write, and then proceeded to read the wrong answer which I kindly informed him of... he stayed awake the rest of the class :), I had to remind them that I was the teacher, and that they were the students; therefore, I was to do the talking and they were to do the listening... I tried the awkward silence approach, but 2 or 3 of them just kept right on talking... For the last 1-2 min. I asked them to share what their favorite Thanksgiving food was, and guess what I got for an answer? "Food"... I was like, really? Glad you like food... how about more specific... like... what kind??? ... "Turkey"... and then my chatty overly helpful students started regurgitating grocery lists...

My Intro. to Ag class is going to be tough and take a lot of work, but they are going to find out that if they choose to behave so poorly this spring... well, let's just say... dynamite comes in small packages... :) ... not because I want to be known as a strict or mean teacher, but because I want them to learn and have fun! They all have potential, and I want them to realize that... My goal is to find out "what makes them tick" and "trick" them into learning (Teach Like a Pirate wisdom)... it's going to be a challenge, but I'm certainly going to try my best!

To be clear... I chose to teach this particular class yesterday knowing ahead of time that they are a rowdy and challenging class (not because my cooperating teacher told me or suggested that I should teach this class, but because he forewarned me that he has had some real issues with this class this year). I wanted to be able to better prepare for the "worst" as much in advance as possible... Now I have a lot better understanding of what to expect, and I have a little over a month to look for more "tools" for my toolbox, creative ideas and activities to get them engaged, and time to brainstorm on how to reach those students! #realadventureandexcitement

Inspiring Gem from the experience... I noticed one of the "lower level" students seemed to really be paying attention, although I quickly saw that he was struggling to fill out his worksheet; however, he kept working at it and trying... towards the end of the lesson I wanted them to write on the board all of the different ag-related careers that they had written on their papers... I checked to see if he needed help, and saw that he had something on his paper, so I asked him to add it to the board... he gave me a quick glance of fear?/apprehension, so I looked at his paper a little closer... only to realize that he had written "constrackshin worker" - I spelled it correctly below for him, he flashed me a grin, and then quickly went to the board and proudly wrote up his contribution! - That's what I call a rewarding experience - one that pushes me to try my hardest! 

Going through the worksheets I collected, I found my Inspiring gem's paper... He defined the following words as follows: Task: "a peas of work", Job: "a pasific job", and Career: "a prefeshin"... very cute, but also sad considering this student is in 9th grade... I'm excited to see if can help to build his confidence and reading and writing skills... wouldn't it be awesome to see him take off and reach new heights!