I recently gave a test to the grade 7 social classes which I thought was fairly balanced and fair. In consisted of true and false, multiple choice, fill in the blank, and two paragraph questions. 

The first part of the test went fairly well, with most students understanding the content and getting answers correct. It was fairly obvious to see which students had been coming to class and which had not. 

When I looked at the paragraph portion however, I was shocked to find that most of the students hadn't bothered to answer the questions. Out of the eight marks for the two questions, the highest mark received was only a three, and I only gave that mark out two or three times. 

At first I wondered if it was because the test was unfair or that the students hadn't understood the content. But both questions had been discussed at length in class, and students had already created assignments in class that showed they knew what to expect. 

The part of the issue that really bugged me, was that most of the students had turned their tests in early and claimed that they were finished. Was it just laziness? Did they really not understand the content?

So the first social class I get, I have decided that I will review the material, and give students an opportunity to turn it in again. They will not be given class time, but must find time out of class, either at lunch or during an option to get it completed. This also puts the responsibility with the students. 

Attendance at this school is a huge deal. Students miss classes every day of the week, and I have several students that have been missing a month at a time. 

How do you adjust your class for a student that's missed three weeks of classes? 

I think one of the hardest parts is collecting evidence from these students to show their learning. The fact is, they haven't learned anything because they haven't been in class. But you still have to assign grades... 

I also have serious questions about how you can pass students and move them along to the next grade if they don't know any of the material from their current grade. How can you hold them back? If a student misses three days of a month, they miss about a month of school a year. When you keep following that trend through their school, they end up falling way behind other students in other schools, and have a difficult time in catching up. 

There are tons of strategies to try to get students into schools.
-Buses come and pick them up
-Breakfast programs
-Monetary incentives for attendance.  
-Calls home

But at the end of the day, the student needs to get themselves up and out of bed on their own. Are they even capable of making that decision on their own? It's even tougher when you think that the parents are often the ones holding students back by not driving, not getting them moving, or being too lazy to take them to school themselves. 

The power of the weekend... maybe the teachers greatest strength and weakness. 

I think that weekends are a great way of setting up the week. They allow you with the time to look at where you are at in your unit, and what's left to do. After meeting with my TA last week, I had to chop away about 6 planned lessons to get ready for report cards. 

The weekend allowed me to sit down and plan how I was going to collect evidence for upcoming report cards. Because I had to cut away some of the lessons, I had to think of new ways to show student understanding. Being able to sit down and actually look at how and what you're going to teach is a fantastic resource. 

I know that some people find it easy to relax on weekends and only do work at work, but I think that having an opportunity to actually sit down and reflect and plan without the stress of a class working in the background. Being able to sit and visually set up your expectations actually creates a better classroom due to the lack of stress. 

At the same time though, I think that it's vital for teachers to take part of their weekend for themselves. It's a chance to recuperate and relax, and get some energy back that may have been missing by the end of the week. 

Keep it simple. 

I think if there is one experience that I'm going to get a lot of here at my school, it's going to be about differentiation. I have an entire class that I need to change things up for, and it's definitely a challenge. 

You want lessons to be valuable and meaningful to students, but also within their comprehension. There are several students with learning difficulties but with no IPP's. This means that I have to teach grade 7 content to students that are at lower grade levels. 

I have to adjust almost every lesson to account for a lack of reading, writing and comprehension. 

So far the easiest way is to plan for the grade 7 Social Classes and then try to change it for the other class. I do this by doing the lesson with the students, instead of getting them to preform it on their own. It's a challenge because I'm worried they aren't taking as much out of the lesson as they could, but I'm not sure how else to teach it to them. It's also especially difficult when your classroom of 12 only has two students show up, and your lesson is scraped. I'll need to plan for that as well. 


One thing that I need to remember to do is to have assignments written up each time. That way, if a student misses a class, I can hand them the sheet and expect it to get done. 

Going to take some time for the students to get used to me. This is an extremely quiet class that doesn't really communicate much with me as the teacher. It's a new experience for me as usually I can get along with students fairly well. 

Partly this is because of the age range and students getting used to me coming in as the new teacher. I also think that the students seemed wary of me due to racial differences. I think that this is a good challenge and that students can learn to accept people for who they are, not what they are. 

Social Studies

Social Studies was an okay lesson, but not amazing. I'm definitely going to stick with my "morning meetings" as a way to connect with kids. 

When I do the timeline exercise tomorrow, I'm going to ask for the number of events, then look for specific example. I'll probably scrap the "what is the American Rev" question as it didn't really pan out. 

The Language Arts classes went way better, especially with the Hunger games Unit. With both classes, it was good to tie in personal opinions and stories. I will continue to do both of those for future lessons.