The past few weeks have been pretty emotional. The funeral for the family that died in the car accident was last night. I didn't go but there was standing room only at the funeral. There is a fund set up to help pay for funeral expenses. I feel for the pain that their loved ones are feeling. I watched a teacher pack up one of the girl's belongings and I almost started crying I couldn't imagine packing up a student's things because they died and knowing that I would never see them in my class again would be so surreal.
This week is Red Ribbon week at school. To start things off my class started "Art Tag" by creating a piece of art for another class. The class we got was one of the classes that lost one of the little girls in the car accident. My kids made them "wish you well" cards and read them a book. The class we read to was a bilingual class that speaks 80% Spanish and 20% English. Some of the kids took my students over to their celebration wall where there was a picture of their classmate that passed. My kids were very touched and sad to be included in their pain.When we got back to the class the kids could not stop talking about how well the Pre-K kids listened. It was so nice to see my kids being leaders and helpful to younger students and so caring about their loss.
So, after looking at my grades and the amount of missing assignments I decided to bring the Master Plan into action. Last Thursday we made a list of all the rewards that we have in the classroom and they thought of things that I hadn't. Progress Reports and Missing Assignment Reports went home on Friday and I have seen a huge change in my student's work habits. Okay, here is my master plan. Students must have all assignments turned in, no referrals, an average of 90 in their planners (for behavior) and grades of an A, B, or C. If they have all of these things then they are invited to an afterschool Guitar Hero Party!! They have been begging for this. In addition, I have a check sheet where the students cross off their name when they turn in an assignment. Each week I will draw one check off sheet and if everyone turned in that particular assignment, then they will get to choose one reward to have back.
Usually when I get on to a particular group of students in my class I get a lot of lip and arguing. Since bringing in my master plan, the arguments have cut in half. Also, I kept in half my class from recess due to incomplete work and I had NO ARGUMENTS!! I keep seeing these little changes. They are baby steps but I will take them. Even with all of the frustration, stress eating, late nights grading and grey hairs I am still very proud of the baby steps I have seen this year and I am looking forward to their continuous growth throughout the year. I'm sorry that this post is a little long. Every group is different and has different needs. This group is bringing my teaching to a whole new level. The nice thing about teaching is that you never stop learning or growing and I think God gives us challenging groups to keep us on our toes. Seeing my students makes me realize how fortunate I am because they deal with struggles that I can't even imagine. More power to them! Here's to more steps in the right direction! Here! Here!
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