Today

was a better day.....

Thank goodness, because Mondays are already bad :)

But no, it was a good day. My kids behaved pretty well, especially when compared to last Friday, and I felt really confident with what I was teaching and with what the kids were receiving. I tried a few new tactics when teaching and they seemed to work. My US kids had to work together using their textbook and their workbook sheets to match eleven different philosophers (OK, nine and then I added the Magna Carta and the 10 Commandements) to their beliefs. Some kids worked great, others would need some prompting to help get on track but then got to work and of course there were those few that just didn't want to do anything. But I guess that's to be expected. With those students, I just made sure that even if they weren't getting their answers done, they weren't distracting others and then used questions to try and guide them to the correct answer. Often i would leave them answering a question and then make my rounds to the other students and come back to lead them through more questions. So it worked.

In my World History class, we made a web on the board for Muhammad but because they had already read about him in the textbook, they had a little bit of background knowledge. The lesson ended up being a combination of me teaching and them sharing what they had remembered and I think it ended up being a good blend of my info and their info. As usual, with my sixth period class, there were students who were chatty or weren't always paying attention but i'm getting good enough with the names so that I can specifically talk to them by name. Also, the kids have picked up on my silent signals- usually a few kids will see that I'm silently standing at the whiteboard and the "shhhhs" will start going through the classroom. And the sixth period kids HATE it when I say that I have no problem keeping them after school so that usually zips their lips too.

I have one student in my sixth period who is VERY enthusiastic but sometimes a little distracting. He always wants to answer the questions but also can be disruptive, answer silly answers instead of thinking throuhg his thoughts, etc. He's a great kid but can drive me crazy! Today, for example, he kept poking and prodding one of his friends at the other table (who he shouldn't have been sitting next to in the first place) and then balancing on his chair, back and forth from four legs to two legs. At one point, I moved him to the front of the room and then sent him back to the other side of his table (away from his friend) but I got a better opportunity to talk to him after school. When the Vice-Principal or Couselor at JIIS holds detention, they do it in my classroom for some reason. So my student was in detention and I got a change to talk to him quickly, on-one-on, no other students around, just simply saying "hey, let's try and work on being a little calmer and more attentive in class and work on keeping all four legs of the chair on the ground". He was receptive and so we'll see what tomorrow brings...