The silver lining

I like my job.

It's a really strange feeling. I can't really explain why I like it right now, although I could b*tch and moan about quite a few things...but for some reason I like it. I make many mistakes daily. I run out of things to do with 5-10 minutes left at least once a week in some class period. I run out of time in other class periods. I'm drowning in ridiculous paperwork and I'm probably only an outstanding teacher one day a week. But the rest of the days I'm adequate. Kids are in their seats, doing work and learning....It may not be interesting or "differentiated", but at least it's work oriented daily.

One of the biggest helps for me has been the random decision during TEAM this summer to do my 5-day on Chapter 7. I'm giving the Chapter 6 test on Friday/Monday and then it's fairly smooth sailing. Of course, my team lessons were designed for 40 minutes and I have 100, but most of the work is done. Chapter 8 will only be a take-home test in the interest of time and the fact that it's a short, fairly unimportant chapter. Chapter 9 was my 6 day lesson plan. Of course, I still have to plan for my other prep, but having one already finished is SOOOOOOOOO wonderful. I guess this is what it feels like to be a second year teacher...

Another ray of light is the arrival of EEF money. I won't see anything I order for many months (if at all, from what I hear), but the opportunity to spend $500 on organizational and creative supplies for my classroom is my favorite thing I've done all year. Maybe I'll get file folders and some pens. Colored pencils? Transparencies? Printer Ink. Whiteboard Markers. Index Cards. Colored Paper. Some kind of In-Out box so that I can find the surface of my desk again. Velcro. I've discovered I use a lot of velcro....

Somehow I've started to see the students as kids, too, which helps. As awful as it sounds, the first few weeks of school the glares they would give me made me sick. I looked at a room full of kids who hated me for 100 minutes 4 times a day. They still hate me some days...but I'm starting to see through it, to understand them more, and also to build up a thicker skin to that kind of stuff. The good parts are getting better and I'm learning how to deal with the bad parts.

I still hate being out of bed before 8 am. It would be hard to find a job that lets me sleep past 8. I think I'm just going to have to get over that.

Learning Styles Blog

My class averages on my learning styles inventories were almost exactly the same for each category (with less than a .04 difference in one class). There were two exceptions to this rule. One was in my class that talks all the time. The students in this class were overall more "People Smart". That could be the reason they are constantly trying to talk. The second exception was in my one freshman class. The students in this class were more "Picture Smart" or visual learners. These two exceptions confirmed my earlier suspicions. The "People Smart" class is better at groupwork and constantly tries to help each other, even when it should be independent work. The "Picture Smart" class is horrible at reading or writing, but loves to look at pictures or do any kind of assignment involving colored pencils. It's amazing how they walk into my room out of control, but after 5 minutes with colored pencils in their hands, they're like angels (I think that has something to do with other issues too, but I won't go into that here).

The most notable result on my inventories was that the students with the lowest grades in my class are each in only one or two learning styles categories, whereas the students who do well in my class are equally distributed between the categories. The students who do poorly are not any one particular learning style as a group, but each individual has certain learning styles where they fit. This confirmed my earlier suspicions that the high achievers will do well in my class whether I lecture every day, or not. It's the ones who have low grades that will suffer if I don't vary my teaching techniques.

Since I gave the tests and calculated the results, I've tried a couple of different things. First, we did a very interactive groupwork activity where students had to act like newscasters and give the "breaking news" of England in the 1700s. As expected, my "people smart" class loved it, as did a couple of other classes, but 2 classes really struggled because of certain individuals who refused to work with their groups. I've also tried to hit more than one learning style in each lesson I teach. I always hit visual and auditory, but I'm trying to involve more kinesthetic and peer-interaction activities. Of course, these bring up classroom management issues in certain classes, so I'm still struggling with that. My lesson plans for next week include passing around some pictures for kids to see and touch and various activities where kids actually get to move and do things. I know that different activities will reach different kids, so my major focus right now is varying things enough that each student can learn. If I figure out how to do that, I'll be the next Harry Wong. :)