Surprises Abound

The first 15 days of school have proven to be a roller coaster. We finally have a new principal, but only in the form or being announced. We are still lacking a math teacher, a language arts teacher, and a certain level or structure. Personally, I am having varied success with all of my new leadership roles, but kinks are beginning to be ironed out. Overall, it feels like it’s been a rocky start to what I thought would be an easy beginning to the year than last year.

However, inside the walls of Room 701, things are off to a great start. Besides some pacing issues (time has never been on my side), things have begun rolling. Thus far, my Honors class is a week ahead of the other two classes, as they should be. All three classes have completed the first unit and taken a quiz for it, and compared to last year, the scores are better right off the bat!

The biggest challenge inside my room has been the changing rosters. For the first 10 days of school, my rosters were changing almost daily. My Standard/Inclusion class wasn’t supposed to have more than 24 students in it, but at the highest point, it had 34. We are now done to 26, and I believe that is where it will stay. As of now, I have class sizes of 26, 28, and 29, and I expect those to stay the way they are.

One of the biggest surprises to me during these first couple weeks of school is what I am enjoying most about my day. Before I met my students, I would have told you that I anticipated enjoying my Honors class/students the most, having a similarly pleasant experience as last year with my Standard Plus students, and finding my Standard/Inclusion class to be the most difficult, to teach and to enjoy. However, not that things have gotten off the ground and I have met the students, my thoughts have changed. I love my Standard/Inclusion class the most, and don’t enjoying teaching Honors as much as I thought I would. Let me clarify though, because there are pros and cons to all. With Standard, there is a vast degree of challenges to learning, such as there almost widespread lack of basic math skills that will hold them back at various times from mastering 7th grade material. And if I’m being honest, that Standard class does have the most behavior challenges. But they also have the most personality. And I truly have the most fun with this class. Now, maybe it’s because I take them outside for activity time, take them to lunch, and have them in class, meaning that I spend 2.5 hrs. with them everyday. Or maybe it’s because I co-teach that class with one of my closest friends in the building. Whatever the combination of circumstances is, I love that class the most. When it comes to Honors, these kids are smart, motivated, and perfect angels when it comes to behavior and procedural expectations. However, they lack a certain amount of fun and personality. I end the day with this group, and while it is an easy transition into a well-organized, managed-on-it’s-own class, I get a little bored with them. I try to be corny and make jokes that my other classes would love, and they just stare at me blankly. Maybe their brand of humor is more mature, just like they are, or maybe they don’t feel comfortable enough with me to laugh. Either way, there is something lacking in that group that I have come to treasure in my Standard class. I never thought I would say this, but I actual would love it if they gave me all the low-achieving, below-grade-level students from now on. I feel like they need me the most, and I think I need them the most too.

I leave you with a story that has truly inspired me this week. I teach 3 students that are repeating 7th grade. In all, there are about 12 repeaters this year, and I failed two of them. One of the boys that I failed was assigned to the “vacant math teacher”. I really liked this kid and felt like we had a good rapport last year. The only reason he failed was because he didn’t do his work and never turned anything in. I also didn’t get to have him all year because his schedule was changed late in the fall, so I only had him for 3 or the 4 quarters. So when I found out he was in the class that didn’t have a teacher, I went to my grade level administrator and requested that I get him back. I explained that I was one of the only adults in the building that this kid showed respect to last year, and that I was really determined to get something out of him this year. My AP agreed and made the switch.

I will refer to him as DG. DG never turned in assignments and bombed almost all of my quizzes and tests last year. I never gave him a progress report with anything higher than a D average, and the highest he might have ever made on one of my 10-question quizzes was maybe a 7/10. Well, this past week we took our first quiz over integers, one of the hardest concepts for 7th graders to learn. Not only did DG get a 9/10, but he also did the bonus questions, and ended up with the HIGHEST score in his class with a 106. The progress report I sent home on Friday showed a 92 average. I had to call his mom to let her know of the turn-around that I have seen in DG. Not only am I seeing this level of academic achievement, but he is also playing leader to his new, younger peers. A different student in the same situation might be bitter about having to sit in a room of younger students and repeat a grade, but not DG. He has taken this as an opportunity to make things right. He tucks his shirt in. He leads the line. He raises his hand in order to ask if he can help the new kid get caught up and answer his warm-up questions correctly. He volunteers to get the trash can at lunch and plays tray dumping cop to his peers so we can get out of the cafeteria on time and our table can be clean. Overall, this change in DG has not only convinced me that even the ones you don’t believe can ever turn it around, can and will surprise you, but that in my 2nd chance at being his teacher, I hope I can pleasantly surprise him and take my performance to the next level as well. I owe him that.

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