"Yay, a sub!"

When students see a substitute, they typically become excited (this post refers primarily to middle school students). As they enter the room, many students ask, "You're a sub?" and express their delight vocally once they receive an affirmative answer.

It is interesting, because their enthusiasm really has nothing to do with me. They believe that a sub means a free day. Although the students can usually expect a little more freedom than usual (I may not know all of the rules, or be able to call on them by name), they will still be required to complete schoolwork. In this, their excitement is usually premature and excessive.

Some students also become so overly excited that I feel slightly bad for their teachers. To hear them celebrate, you may believe that they seriously dislike their teachers. In reality, they are generally just excited about a possible "free day".

Next Year

Teachers seem to love to say, "Next year, in ____ grade, you will be expected to know/be able to ________."

The students take this pretty seriously and this saying becomes a way to coerce students into learning something or acting more responsibly. It is a pretty effective technique, and students really respond. Many times they will start telling each other about other ominous things to expect "next year".

I find it a little humorous that students don't really realize that they hear this every year.

Lots of Fun

Yesterday and today were early release. So, we saw two classes each day for a longer amount of time than usual.

We took the students to the computer lab to use an internet site that the school uses, called Study Island. It asks the students questions about what they are studying. In this cases the geography of Africa. After they did a certain amount (decided by Mr. Dorray) they were able to play in game mode. This means that after they get a question right they get to play a short game. So, they are still studying, but get to have some fun.

Then we went back to the classroom and played a review game. We projected a map of Africa onto the white board and quizzed the students. I would give them the name of either a country or physical feature and the first person to raise their hand got to come up and draw it on the board. If they were right they got a piece of candy. I wanted everyone to get a turn, so once a student won they could only go again if no one knew the answer (this didn't keep them from raising their hand and trying to get picked).

They seemed to know the material, so hopefully they will do well on their test tomorrow.

The students enjoy Study Island, and they really seemed to enjoy the review game. (I will definitely use this in the future!) Some of the students even told me at the end of the day yesterday that they really liked the review game and wanted to do it again.

I had a great time because the kids were so enthusiastic. They had fun and made me laugh. Great two days!

Class Personalities

Each class that I teach has a different personality. Today I will introduce you to them.

Academic One 
The Class Clowns

• Energetic
• Funny
• Loves to participate and contribute out loud
• Easy going but can be rowdy
• Doesn't finish lessons as quickly as the other classes

Academic Two
The Cranky Kids

• Hit or Miss
• Has the most kids that talk back
• Opinionated (Not necessarily a bad thing)
• Longest time needed for test taking
• Lunch - sometimes they can't settle down, sometimes they all seem asleep
• Can be the least participatory

Academic Three
The Smart Kids

• Most intelligent
• Fastest at lessons and tests
• Best behaved (except for one particular student)
• Sometimes this class feels bland because the kids are smart, but not always vocal
• When they feel like participating in a discussion, it is thoughtful and insightful
• I like to be observed in this class

Despite their differences, I do not really have a favorite class. One day I will love a certain class, and the next day they will be monsters. So, how I feel about each class depends on what kind of mood I am in as well as what kind of mood they are in.

5-4-3-2-1

I have started counting down to get the class settled. It is working really well.

I was having a hard time finding the right way for me to get the class to pay attention and get quiet. This has started working pretty much immediately. I am sure some of their teachers have used it in the past. It also tells them exactly when the behavior I want is expected to be complete.

So, yay!

Kids Say The Darndest Things

I took my glasses off for a few seconds yesterday to wipe them off and had this conversations with one of my female students.

Student: (from across the room) Mrs. Farr!

Me: Yes?

Student: (In a tone of voice that said she had just made a huge discovery) You look pretty without your glasses!

Me: (Chuckling) Only without my glasses? Um, thanks.


She left the room a few minutes later, but stopped me on the way out.



Student: You should wear contacts.

Me: I'll take it into consideration.


Gotta love that they haven't really developed filters yet :)

Funniest Test Answers Ever

To coincide with my previous post I present 

the funniest test answers ever:

xkcd.com

http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/airfoil.png

Skits

Today I split the class into groups of about 5-6 to prepare skits. They were to explain a part of the government of Saudi Arabia to the rest of the class.

It went OK. However, there were a lot of issues within the groups. I split them by having the students count off 1-5. So, first student says 1, that's their group. Student next to them says 2, that's their group. And so on. I thought it would help randomly assign then and keep the friends away from each other. I not sure how well that worked, because then people who didn't get along were together and didn't want to work.

I did two Minor Incident Reports (when the student has 3 of these they get a referral) while the students were in their groups. One was for a girl who called another student "gay". And, the other was for a student who told another to "F off". Of course he didn't just say the letter F. They will both get to enjoy silent lunch.

Some of the teams did really well. One student did a great rap with the support of his team. Most did not do so well, and I am pretty sure most of the students did not learn much. There was also a writing portion of the class where they wrote home while on vacation in Saudi Arabia, about how different Saudi Arabia was from the United States. By reading their letters, I know that most of them learned that women cannot vote in Saudi Arabia.

So, I learned a lot from the experience, and if I do skits again it will be done differently.
Tomorrow I am trying a jigsaw. More on that later...