Ugh... The first two weeks of school have hit me like a ton of bricks! I thought that I would be less tired this year because I'm not working 2 different jobs. Well I was wrong! I'm hoping that when I fall back into my regular groove I'll stop being so tired.
So far the year has gone really well. I feel like my discipline system is going to be really effective with the kids this year. I'm really making an effort to use the systems that I have set in place, and not get too frustrated that I get flustered. I've found that taking away a star is working really well. I like it because I don't even say anything, I just walk up and take it away. Because they are taken away from specific categories, I don't have to explain why it got taken away, the kids are always aware of the reason why (even if they are the perpetrators). Every once in a while there will be a kid who isn't paying attention when I take it, or his neighbor doesn't nudge him when it happens, and they'll ask about it, but it's pretty rare.
My challenge this year is definitely going to be 3rd and 4th grade. 3rd grade because I think that's just a hard age for me. They are right at that age where they want to be treated like the upper graders, but I really can't trust them with that much freedom yet. By the end of the year they're ready, but at the beginning they just don't have the skill set to work that independently.
4th grade is going to be hard because 3rd grade was really hard last year. Apparently this group of kids got into Kindergarten, and all the kinder teachers were telling people to watch out. It's not that there are a ton of bad kids (obviously there are a few more challenging ones) but it's just an awful mixture of kids. As one of the 3rd grade teachers put it last year "too many Chiefs and not enough Indians".
First of all, there are a ton of boys. Oh my gosh. It's probably a 70-30 boy to girl ratio in that grade. And not that I have anything against boys, but they are definitely full of energy and a handful to contain when they're all together.
Second of all, all of the kids think that they are the class clown. Normally you'll get 1 or 2 kids per class that like to crack jokes, or just make a fool of themselves, but I've got 5 or more in each class! It's out of control!
Lastly, and this is the worst one, these are some of the most entitled kids that I have ever come across. They act like we are there to serve them, and if something doesn't suit their mood (like listening to directions, doing activities appropriately, etc.) they just don't. It is crazy to me that I have had multiple 10 year olds look me in the eye and flat out say no! I don't want to. WHAT?!?!?!
It's not like I'm asking them to do ridiculous things, or even things that are boring, they just don't feel like it, and they aren't going to do it.
This makes me sound very old, but I can't imagine ever trying to pull something like that when I was going to school. I don't even know what the teacher's course of action would have been, because it never happened. I never did it, I never witnessed it, I never even heard about it.
I know for a fact that there are 3-4 boys in the grade level that have an IEP and a diagnosis of "Oppositional Defiant Disorder" but I think it is far wider spread than that. I am hoping that the majority of my 4th graders will mature this year, and we will be able to get through all of the curriculum that I have planned, and have fun doing it. 4th grade is rigorous, especially with a huge chunk of it spent on recorder, and I am really going to try to hold them to the same high standards that I held the 4th graders to last year.
Wow. Rant rant rant!
I am off to do some more lesson planning, I have some stuff in the works that I'm hoping will be really good!
