I don't have children, so I'm not entirely sure what it's like to be exhausted with a newborn. However, I know that I've never known a tired like "Teacher Tired" at the beginning of the school year. This is my fifth year teaching, and each first week of school, it never fails that on a particular evening I will find myself face down on the living room carpet passed out for at least three hours after school. If I'm lucky on that day to first lay down on my bed, my cheek will have a pillow-case line instead of carpet indentations when my husband comes home to find me sacked out still in my school clothes and shoes. This year, I made it to Thursday before that happened. This is my definition of progress, ladies and gentlemen.
The exhaustion generally becomes evident in my ability to articulate my words later in the week. This was true in my last class of the day Friday. When explaining that I allow my students to eat in class, I had to address the peanut/tree nut allergy some of my students have. I pointed out that I have several students with a wide range of nut allergies and that students who choose to eat in my classroom need to be aware of whether any food they eat in class contains peanuts or tree nuts. I also made a point to tell them that they need to check the ingredient label because some foods contain ground nuts or are made in plants which process nuts for other foods. Keep in mind that I teach 9th graders. Yes, they picked up on the ridiculous amount of times I said the word, "nuts," and we had a good laugh at my expense.
As if that wasn't enough, the next activity I had planned was a ball toss game. You can bet they picked up on that as well.
And of course that wasn't the end of it, because I was just so exhausted but still trying to keep my energy and pace up for the sake of my last class of the week. I explained that in this game, they needed to make sure they called the name of the person they would toss the ball to and said, "This is the first lesson of Success 101, I mean Sex 1.0, I mean Success 1.0." Yes, tongue-tied me, simply trying to get the name of the course correct in order to avoid student confusion, somehow managed to twist the title of my class from Success to Sex (For those of you who don't know, the class was called Success 101 last year, and this year is known as Success 1.0). Needless to say, I needed a moment. Graciously, my students allowed me one.
On the positive side of the week, my students are wonderful so far. With Success 1.0, I am allowed to spend a little more time than most teachers on "get-to-know-you" games and other ice breakers. Due to the fact that we have spent the week getting to know each other without having to focus on a content area which is tested in April, I feel like I know these students the way I usually don't get to know them until about the middle of the first semester. I can't wait to continue building relationships with these students and, hopefully, guide them in the direction of a meaningful career and build skills they will need in the "real world." So far, this is a TON more fun than teaching prepositions and sentence structure.
One of my favorite activities which I had my students do this week was the "Crap List." Excuse the language if it is offensive to you, but I hear the word, "crap," in my classroom on a daily basis, so I decided to make use of it in an educational way. Credit for this idea goes to University of Central Florida head coach, Todd Dagenais. The idea behind the Crap List is that students create a list of things they hate/dislike about classes, group work, the way students treat each other, teacher strategies, etc. at school. They then take this Crap List and, in conjunction with each other and the teacher, set the expectations for the course. After that (we haven't gotten to this step yet), students define some of the things on the list (i.e. what does it mean to be disrespectful?), then they come up with a way to respectfully remind classmates when they are doing something that has been established as unacceptable in the classroom. Lastly, the Crap List is posted for all to see and the students are held to these expectations by both the teacher and other students.
I feel that this is beneficial because I don't have to be the bad guy. I am simply the facilitator and the students get to have a ton of say in how class and group work will be handled. Then, if a student violates the Crap List, I am supported by the list, other students, and justified in any consequences I give because the student agreed and helped to come up with the terms listed in the first place.
I use this as the first project (PBL project) of the semester forcing students into collaboration and communication with one another. They take ownership because they created it. Further, in regards to Arkansas' implementation of TESS (Teacher Excellence and Support System), and the domains regarding classroom procedures and class management, student involvement in the regulation of student behavior moves a teacher from a 3 to a 4 if done well.
So, overall, this was a great first week of school. Although several kinks arose in the first week plan at our school, I feel that my glass is more than half full. I'm looking forward to Monday, our school's first ever Tiger Camp for 9th graders (more information to come on this next week), and to a really great volleyball season (matches start after Labor Day). I hope your week was as wonderful as mine. I also hope that you get some rest this weekend so that no one ends up face down on the living room rug next week.
