It's the little things
...that drive you crazy.
My current problem is constant, low-level misbehavior. Nobody's doing things that call for extreme action, but every day it's the same thing. How many times do I have to ask a certain kid to sit down? How many times do I have to redirect the same darn kid to the same darn task? How many times do I have to repeat instructions? It's crazymaking.
It's raising my blood pressure, unfortunately.
Also, let me officially state that I hate calling parents and should stop putting it off.
I went to a class on classroom management the other week and they showed us a graph of the first year of teaching. It started out with anticipation and excitement before the school year started (August, September). Then around October-November-December, it dropped off pretty sharply. This was the "disillusionment" phase. I think I'm there. With these phase-things, do you think it helps or hurts to know which phase you are in? Sometimes it annoys me (I'm not a textbook, darn it!) but sometimes it makes me feel better to know that others are in this boat too. Luckily the graph picks up and by the end of the school year is on the upward move again. One day at a time, right?
My current problem is constant, low-level misbehavior. Nobody's doing things that call for extreme action, but every day it's the same thing. How many times do I have to ask a certain kid to sit down? How many times do I have to redirect the same darn kid to the same darn task? How many times do I have to repeat instructions? It's crazymaking.
It's raising my blood pressure, unfortunately.
Also, let me officially state that I hate calling parents and should stop putting it off.
I went to a class on classroom management the other week and they showed us a graph of the first year of teaching. It started out with anticipation and excitement before the school year started (August, September). Then around October-November-December, it dropped off pretty sharply. This was the "disillusionment" phase. I think I'm there. With these phase-things, do you think it helps or hurts to know which phase you are in? Sometimes it annoys me (I'm not a textbook, darn it!) but sometimes it makes me feel better to know that others are in this boat too. Luckily the graph picks up and by the end of the school year is on the upward move again. One day at a time, right?
posted by Suzy at 4:01 PM
1 Comments:
[Ghostly voice] Don't deny the phases, Suzanne. The phases are your friends.[/gv]
I think it's helpful to know the phase. It helps you identify that others are going through the same issues and shows you the light at the end of the tunnel. We give our students a talk about the stages of culture shock. One of our student workers "didn't believe in it" and came back from France with the worst reverse culture shock anyone had ever seen. 3 months after it started to disappear he admitted it.
Everyone that deals with students hates calling parents. It's the worst part of the job.
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