Wednesday, May 26, 2010

End of the Year

My students are currently working on their final exams, and I am forced to sit quietly and busy myself with something that is not distracting for them. So, I am making my final entry of the school year. I may post over the summer as I am taking home all of my SIOP materials to get some ideas for classroom management, lessons, and activities for next year. At the end of each school year, I always have aspirations for reworking some of my less successful lesson plans and coming up with projects, powerpoints, and activities. The truth is, though, I mostly forget about school during the summer months. My brain doesn't even want to think about the chaos of it all: the paperwork, the gradebook, the never-ending questions, the complaints, the sleepers, the eyerolls, the 5AM wake ups, the 20 minute lunches, the commandments from the County.... A two month break from it all is barely enough to recharge for the next go-round.

A couple of things that I do what to think about, though, are: 1) how to give immediate punishment to sleepers. They drive me crazy, and it's not enough to give them detention the next day. I want to make a "Standing Corner" in my room next year where the sleepers have to go stand up for the rest of the period and do their work. I have to consider its positioning, though, so I can send a sleeper there during lecture, reading time, presentations, or individual work time. 2) Next year, I need to not be worried about damaging a students' social skills by moving him/her away from friends. Sometimes I worry that a student will shut down if he/she isn't near a particular person with whom he/she feels safe. This only applies to a few students each year, but I'm going to see if moving them isn't the best thing for them. 3) I want to incorporate more world lit into SOPH LA (WORLD LIT). Especially for the novel selections, the students read Lord of the Flies and Bronx Masquerade or Go Ask Alice. One of those is by a British author, and the others are by American authors! What is so "wordly" about that? I already have some new texts in mind and I'll have to see if we have money to purchase a class set. If not, I may have to do a fund raiser to buy the books. :)

I don't know if I posted the best news: I'm staying at CHHS next year! I'll be moving inside the building and will no longer have to plan my treks into the building to make copies, use the RR, or visit the media center. I'll directly across the hall from my department chair, and close to everything! The kids have been great about helping me pack up and move. They are happy I am staying even though they know I work them hard. I guess they can really tell a difference when you work them hard because you care.

Today is graduation, and I'll be sitting with O___, my student from Rwanda. She is such a joy, and I am delighted for her. She'll be going back to Rwanda this summer to visit her family for two months. She said that she'll be staying with her grandmother for two weeks out in the country, which is something she's never done before. She says it makes her nervous to be out in the middle of nowhere in her grandmother's house with nothing by cows all around. It is about two hours away from Kigali, the capital, where O___ lives. She promised to send pictures and also invited me to go with her next year! :) That would be the trip of a lifetime!

I'm sitting here looking at my 6th period students as they take their final exam, and I'm thinking: "How strange. I do not have a favorite among my students." I enjoy them all for various reasons: some are hard workers, some have a great sense of humor, some are sweethearts, and some are just so clueless that I'm always anxious and excited to see that lightbulb turn on.

Time to grade some tests. I hope they did well!

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