Saturday, November 3, 2007
I'm back on-line in Reno!!
Well, I just finished reading everyone's blogs. It only took me two hours to catch up and find out what's new. I love seeing the grandkids and greatgrandkids getting so big now. I can't wait to start having fun with my new baby. I have about 7 more months to go. I feel fine although sometimes I start to gag if I think about or see a dirty toilet or dirty sink. I almost threw up at lunch the other day. Maybe morning sickness will find me soon. I still weigh the same which is good. I don't want to gain too much weight early on. I am tired and irritable especially at school. My kids drive me nuts!!! I have 24 students in Kindergarten. 13 are boys and 11 are girls. I have six pretty terrible boys that punch, hit, spit, pinch, kick and choke each other and anyone else that they feel like torturing that day. I am out of ideas on how to handle the aggresive kids. I have had the principal, the nurse, the counselor and other special ed teachers in my room in the last week. Hopefully they will have some more ideas to help me get my class in order. Next week is half days at school and I will get to talk to each student's parents. I have to have a Spanish interpreter for half of the parents. I want to make up a contract for good behavior and have the parents and the child sign it. I can't teach a lesson with so many distractions and misbehaviors. I am firm, strict, and yell a lot. That is not working at all. I try to be positive and offer rewards, star bucks, which are like money to shop at the school store each month. They like earning star bucks, but I have some boys who came in at lunch time and raided my desk stealing star bucks and writing their names on them. I found out after lunch when I saw my desk a mess and papers on the floor. I blew up and lectured the class about not touching my things, not coming inside during lunch, blah, blah, blah. Some of the kids get it, but a lot of kids just look at me like I'm crazy. Who knows how much they are even paying attention to me. I have been reading my college books on Classroom Management, and Tips to Better Behavior Guide. If anyone has any advice for me let me know. We did go on a field trip the day before Halloween to a pumpkin patch. I didn't even lose a kid. I had Barry as a parent volunteer and I gave him some hard kids to watch. He thinks it is funny that I have such hard days. He trys to give me advice about being more strict and making the kids sit in time out. I try but it just doesn't work. I don't give up and I don't cry, I just get really mad and frustrated with myself because I can't solve this problem. I have only had this class for one month and they are all kids who started the year with another teacher and then had to move classrooms where they had substitutes for weeks until I was hired. The other kinder teacher told me that they have to have more time to bond as a class and learn to appreciate each other. The kids are only 5 and 6 years old. I would be happy if they just left each other alone and let me teach them. Anyway, I'm going to try to update the blog and add some pictures of the school, the house, and of the pumpkin patch.
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4 comments:
I wish I had a solution or even suggestion that would work!! Here are some ideas. Ask for the parents of the problem boys to come in one at a time one day each week so they can see their child in action. If you had bored grandmas or anyone who could come in and work with them one-on-one maybe that would work. Otherwise they will grow up to be like my horrible class at Mojave that I struggled with for a year!
It seemed like forever that you didn't add to your blog and looked at the dates and it was only one month! Anyway, welcome back!! Love, Mom
Thanks Mom. I will try your suggestions. I do have an aide in the am from about 9 am to 10:15 each day and then in the pm another aide from 1:45 to 3:15pm. The aides are just as frustrated with the boys as I am. They compare me to the other classes which is not fair because this is only my second year teaching. I do have some parents who want to come and volunteer. The main problems happen in the hallway, at lunch recess and at pm recess. There isn't enough people to watch each child during each transition. I'm glad to be able to get on-line and vent on my blog. Things have to get better.
Love, Shelly.
Hey Shelly, I feel guilty, but I was totally laughing when I was reading the comment you posted on my blog about your class. I felt so much better that Daniel isn't the only wild crazy out there. I know you will figure something out! When you do--TELL ME!!! :) Talking to the parents is your best bet. Spanish families, when they know what is going on, are sometimes more involved and helpful than traditional american white families. I grounded Daniel on Friday from the t.v., computer, and all friends for getting sent to skills because he hit. For the first time that I can recall he was actually genuinely upset and I could tell that grounding is going to work for him. You could send behavior reports home to the parents of each of the 4 hard kids. I will post what the sheet looks like on my blog. It only takes her a minute to fill them out at the end of the day and I then know exactly how Daniel behaved that day. If he got all 5 smileys then I can reward him. If there is a straight or sad face she writes why he got that and then I can talk to Daniel about what happened and give him suggestions as to how he can improve his behavior the next time. The key is parental involvement, some kind of a daily behavior sheet sent home, and a consequence that the child will respond to (parents can administer the consequence and they will know what their kids will react to the best.) As for in class, if they won't do time out--they have to be taken out just like Daniel and put where they can't hurt any one or disrupt. Skills?
Thanks Erica and Mom for your advice. We don't have skills at our school but I can send the kids to the principal's office for a detention for hitting. Also, I will start keeping the boys who hit in from lunch recess and I do send notes home and let the parents know what kind of behavior their child is expressing. It seems they are pretty tough on Daniel at his school but I think it is good. He will learn much faster than my kids with immediate consequences and time away from his class. I don't think Daniel will keep this up much longer. Detention seems to work for kids. They want to play with their friends at recess. I get to talk to the parents this week. Hopefully something good will come out of it. My worst student is going to a different teacher that he started out the year with. He only speaks spanish and is my worst hitter. His teacher speaks spanish fluently and says he never hit anyone in her class. We will see what he does.
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