Getting kids to do homework. That is my biggest struggle. In my classes I started off with SSR and typing tutor. In my two World Cultures classes, I checked to see if they did homework. They had two nights. Maybe 1 or 2 in each class did all the homework. 4 or 5 did half the homework and the rest... nada. So frustrating cause I was going to make the test questions off of their questions. Could I do more to help them out??? Sigh...
Anyways, in my first two period we grouped up and then they came up with questions for the chapter. I really want them to learn some skills so if I take more time to actually have them learn the skills. So be it. I just wanted to talk about other things. In World Cultures 2 I was all ready to go into a talk on Haiti but didn't get to. I just told them how their textbooks sucked cause it had nothing about Haiti and the US history textbook had about one line about the US occupation. But it was cathartic to give out a bunch of hours to people that didn't do their homework.
My Asian American class was great though. I have a low skill student that can be quite a handful all into the class. She comes in excited wanting to learn and she is all attentive. It's pretty awesome cause when I told her CTM she was shocked. Another student started paying more attention when I was talking about US forces in other countries and referred to it as us, she asked how was it us? I agreed with her that I mispoke and then gave her a bunch of my academic points for correcting me. This worked very well when I taught elementary school. The girl was so happy and said she should pay attention more. It makes them feel good when they correct me and I acknowledge it. I feel that it helps create a safe space to make mistakes when I can acknowledge my mistakes. Plus getting a bunch of tickets makes them want to find fault with me and that means they gotta pay attention. But I asked that class who had done the homework and every single one of them had. It was awesome!!! Fucking Awesome!!! Now a student that I had problems with last year and is repeating it pays more attention. Now she wants to do the homework. Had a great time with this class.
Some of my kids in CTM have been a punk to a new teacher. Throwing papers in class and just acting the fool. So I gave them a bunch of hours and told them that they were going to clean afterschool. Then I gave them 4 big outdoor bags and gloves and told them not to come back till they were finished cleaning. To their credit, they did some serious cleaning. The school lunch yard looks so much better now. They said they learned their lessons and wouldn't mess around anymore. It was sweet schadenfreude watching them clean.
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