New Tricks for an Old Dog

Where I'm at

2010-10-14T02:15:00.000-04:00

I had a dream (nightmare? since I'm up at 1:30AM) where a class was going bonkers and a voice/kid/ I don't know said "Be prepared for class". And I woke up and so far no more sleep.

How are my proceedures going? Good for the most part. My period 9 class is the section that I'm losing sleep over now. A real mix of won't do's and can't do's. I've tried mixing them around changing the physical arraingment of the room. (I wish I had one arm bandits)

I think what I need to do today is change seats yet again and take some time to review the Code of Conduct (especially the on task part), but two of my soccer players that really need some focus are out, yet again.

I think I'll change the seating yet again and have them pull out my FAQ's and review them.

Classroom Rules

2010-09-07T18:13:00.000-04:00

Three days of school down and the honeymoon is over. While I did not have to assign any detentions, I did have to give some warnings.

I've set up some note cards with one name per card. I use these to randomize who I call on. This year I started adding notes about tardies, verbal warnings etc. Hopefully this ill allow me to remember what measures I've taken.

Once I had students working on their skill packets for about 10 minutes, I review the classroom rules and we reviewed the Code of Conduct for the school. Be Polite/Work Hard are the two that I stressed today.

We did an exploration around experimental probability in the math credit factory courses centered on genetic traits. It went pretty well this year.

I spoke to a couple of sharper students in the each section of the math credit factory courses about working on something else while they were waiting for others to catch up/finish up. I think they heard me. We'll hold them to it tomorrow. I do have to get some sponge activities copied and available in case they are tired f working on the skill packets.

It is suprising how much they don't seem to remember about percentages.

I have to remember: follow through, follow through, follow through.

Consequences

2010-09-04T09:38:00.001-04:00

Both my children are in a French 1 course this year. The teacher (a long time veteran also) has this “Stairway of Consequences” for infractions of classroom rules on her Course Expectations:

Office Referral

Teacher Detention

Teacher/Parent Conference

Teacher Student Conference

Seating Change

Friendly Reminder/Verbal Warning

I really like this. Since I'm blindly ripping off my colleagues' good ideas, I'll add this one also.

Guide book

2010-09-04T04:08:00.001-04:00

Three days of class down. I have a mixed bunch this year. My math credit factory classes has one section that is filled with needy kids and the other section consists mostly of people that dropped out of the alg 1-geo-alg 2 sequence. This sharper section is at the end of the day.

I handed out my "Guidebook"

I've practiced the items in red.

I have to keep thinking about how to keep bringing these procedures back to them so we keep them in mind.

The other thing I need to do this next week is to review the code of conduct. Can I relate it to how you interact in the business world?

One issue that arose this week: I had a section canceled due to low enrollment. This means I have to cover a lunch duty. This puts a crimp into my lunch detention consequence. I need to figure out how to deal with this. I'm just glad that I'm not at the bottom of the seniority list.

I also had the AP swing by my Accounting class. All students were on task with their skill packets.

Honeymoon time is sweet!

Follow Through

2010-08-28T09:28:00.000-04:00

One of my biggest weaknesses in managing a classroom is following through with consequences. I don't remember that I assign lunch and after school detentions and when students fail to show, there is no action taken.

I need to break this inaction on my part.

A colleague that I worked with for one year had "tickets" or detention slips printed at his own expense. There were a two part carbon-less form. I think I might go this route this year. As long as I keep the cost down it should be reasonable.

I have found these Pre-printed forms (500 forms for $20 + $6 shipping)

I've asked our bookkeeper if there is a less expensive alternative. Who knows, maybe I can get the school to pay for them?

What Rules?

2010-08-28T09:08:00.001-04:00

What is a rule? Wang asks: What three things would make you happy in running your classes? I paraphrase of course.

Students working bell to bell
being polite to each other and to me
mastering mathematics or at least building some confidence in their abilities.

I've used these rules in past years:

Be Responsible
Be Respectful
Work hard.

I've always liked general rules and not specific rules. But getting the general rules defined for the kids is hard. I think I'll try a session where we sit down and define what these general rule mean, get their ideas down on paper and run with them.
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A couple of days later I find the school's web site has this available:

Code of Conduct

Be Kind to others	Be Respectful	Work Hard
Be encouraging, courteous and polite	Use language that is appropriate and respectful	Do your own work and complete it on time
Allow others to learn	Respect now, question later and disagree respectfully	Stay present and engaged in your work
Help and protect self and others peacefully	Respect others property	Be prepared and on time.
Have the courage to live a healthy lifestyle	Be honest and demonstrate personal integrity in all interactions	Challenge yourself, set high expectations
Stand up to injustice, advocate for self and others	Wear appropriate clothes that demonstrate respect to self and the school.	Be open to new ideas
Protect others rights, respect others beliefs and practice tolerance.	Advocate for yourself and others for a quality education

Sounds like something I can live with and helps to define the General Rules.

So here is what I have hanging in my classroom in three places:
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Classroom Rules

1. We need to follow Oxbow's Code of Conduct:

Be Kind to Others
Be Respectful
Work Hard

2. No Food. Only Plastic/Metal bottles with a cap (No larger than 1 liter). No cans.

3. No electronics other than a calculator.

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Now the trick is to enforce then consistently

First Day of School.

2010-08-20T17:52:00.000-04:00

Well, here is a blog to document my attempt at teaching using the Harry Wang methodologies link. After twenty-two years in the classroom, let's see if I can finally begin to get it right. For the last few years at my school, which is certainly search-able, but I'll not name it here, I've been teaching AP Calculus and the math credit factory courses for eleventh and twelfth graders at my school. While I usually have a handle on my classes, there are those days and students that just don't work well. I get pissed at their rotten attitudes and grief they like to give me. Yes not all students are as nice as my own kids and some parents should ride herd on their own a bit more.

My last two years of AP scores have been less than stellar, probably because I'm doing more calculus than my students have been. The math credit factory courses have become the course of choice for students with IEPs (no problem, I like working with students that give me their all, even if they don't have much to give) and for the "won't do" students. These are the lazy ones that don't want to work and just frak around.

I'm getting the sense that the administration at my school is trying to get if of expensive staff that they deem to be less than producing optimal results. Am I one of these individuals? I was looking at Wang's book last year and had planned to look deeper this summer. The Principal suggested this text back in July during a trip into school to me. That I "should spend some time with it".

So here I am T - 12 days and asking myself: What is a Rule? What is a Procedure?

A long time ago, one of my mentor teachers told me to set the bar way below the level that would piss me off. Ten years ago I had a student tell me that "your problem, Mr. Lemay, is that you don't crack the whip enough".

We'll see if I can finally get this right using these first days of school techniques. With the State Retirement System changing things, telling me that I have to do ten more years, this is the year to do it!