My+own+thoughts+and+reflections

These are all my own thoughts.Please feel free to comment in the discussion tab.

August 25 First day of school. I remember, now, why I love teaching 7th grade. The kids are so full of ambiguity, so multifaceted. They are innocent and cynical, curious and timid, bold and shy. It's wonderful. As I met my kids today I could almost sort them into groups by which teacher they had last year. It is so frustrating to me that I can do that based solely on their behaviors..not by any other measure. I've seen it before, but it was driven home to me again today. The kids who can't sit still, who fidget, interrupt and blurt out are the easiest to group. Those who had Teacher A expect to be chastised and punished when they have these behaviors. And the other kids who had Teacher A look at these kids with disdain--a behavior I'm sure they saw modeled for them every day in Teacher A's classroom. These kids have been told, maybe in not so many words, that they are bad...so they expect to be treated as if they were bad..they expect that they will be penalized for natural behaviors. They also, in my experience, tend to act out even more, reminding me of the Eminem lyric "I am whatever you say I am, if I wasn't then why would you say I am." Two years ago I actually pulled a kid aside and said to him, "You are not a bad kid. You don't impress me with your behavior, but you don't need to act like that. I will __not__ put you out. You are gonna be stuck here with me no matter what, cause I love you too much to let your silliness become badness." That kid, who had spent __a lot__ of his 6th grade year in ISS for his behaviors, made an instant turnaround. I mean instant. Why? Maybe because I gave him what HE needed instead of demanding that he give me what I needed. Mom always said, "You get more flies with honey." Well, I don't want flies, but I know that when you give a kid what he or she needs, they are more likely to give back to you what you want. I am really looking forward to working with these kids this year. I've got quite a few who admit that they like reading and quite a few who say they hate it. I told them that I hate to play Super Mario Brothers on the Wii because I suck at it. (Yes, I said suck.) I told them that often we don't like to do something we feel we can't do well. I promised them that by the end of the year they might not like reading any better than they do now, but they would certainly //be// better at it. It's going to be a great year. I am going to take these kids places they never imagined....places I haven't imagined yet too.