- I'm back from Washington, D.C!!! It was so much fun and after I put the pictures on a disc, I plan on doing a post on it tomorrow.
- I left DC with swollen feet, a sore body, and a bruise on my forehead from running into the overhead compartment on the train. Needless to say, I was ready to come back :)
- I go tomorrow to pick up materials to prepare myself for teaching 7th grade next semester!! I'm so excited/relieved/blessed/nervous to have this job because I fit perfectly teaching 11th/12th graders, but this is 7th graders--a whole new ballgame full of hormones and puberty! Pray for me as I learn to have patience and understanding, and that I can show these students love because first and formost, the students need to know that I love them and care about them.
- I lost 3.4 more pounds after weigh-in on Monday afternoon!! I was so shocked that I ate pretty much whatever I wanted in DC--but I rationalized it because I'm pretty sure I walked 2316584131 miles on this trip.
- You've Got Mail is on AMC right now. I love this movie and my favorite scene is at the very end where they meet. It always makes me tear up!!
- Now I'm off to watch Breakfast at Tiffany's. Be checking back tomorrow for my post on DC. It may be tomorrow night but it will be tomorrow.
Thursday, December 16, 2010
I'm Baaaaaaaack!!!
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3 comments:
Ouch! (for the bruise)
I feel like you are going to be awesome at teaching 7th graders!
And You've Got Mail is such a great movie! One of my favorites!
:-)
Glad you had a blast in DC-I've always wanted to go at Christmas! Oh, and I watched You've Got Mail, too-love that movie!! xoxo
Glad you enjoyed DC! You definitely walk off anything you eat there... Everyone walks everywhere!!
Here's the main thing I've found with teaching middle school... First and foremost, finding a way to make the material relatable to them is key. If they're relating to the material and engaged in the lesson, they're much less likely to give behavior issues. I guess that really applies to any age, but I've found that it's huge when dealing with middle schoolers. Secondly, find an attention getter that works specifically with your class and stick with it. One of my the classes I worked with responded well to the clapping method. If they started to get loud, I would say, in a normal conversation volume (wherever I happened to be in the classroom), "if you can hear me clap once" then the students closest to me would clap (usually around 3-4 students) because they were the only ones who could hear me. Then I'd say, "if you can hear me clap twice" which would get ~10 students to clap, and so on. Then I'd have the entire class' attention. When I first started doing this, I never really exceeded 3, maybe 4 claps. After about 2 weeks of doing it, it was extremely rare throughout the rest of the year that I had to ask for 2 or more. They would hear me say "if you can hear me..." then quiet down. Just something to think about! :) Can't wait to hear all about it!
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