Teaching Middle Schoolers

Hello everyone! I want to start off this post by letting you know what its like to teach middle schoolers...Today one of my students came up to me and said "Ms. Ramsey, I need some scissors because my shoe string is stuck in my braces." There is definitely never a dull moment in middle school and I love it!

This week was my third full week of teaching and it feels like it flew by. I don't know about you guys, but it seems like the weeks are just flying. The day certainly goes much faster when you are teaching all day instead of observing.

I would rate this week a 2. I am still loving my placement, the students, and my team mates and other teachers/faculty. But, this week, and last week, I experienced a major "teacher struggle." So many of my students were out for days at a time, some of them more than a week, because of the flu. This resulted in a lot of students missing lessons and a lot of missing/makeup work. On Tuesday, I ended our unit on area, but I just didn't feel comfortable moving on without more of my students and with so many holes in my grade book. I decided to use Wednesday as a "catch up day." I made a table with all of the current assignments and the names of students missing each assignment. The students were able to use the entire period to work on missing assignments, and I was able to catch up the students who were absent for a week. Allowing for this "catch up day" made me feel much better about ending our unit, and I'm sure those students who missed so many days felt the same way.

Another "teacher struggle" I experienced this week was getting three new students in four days. Two of these students joined my 2nd period right in the middle of my edTPA lessons. This put me in a bind because I had to find a place to seat them out of camera range. This is a full class and I already had three students who didn't bring their forms back. So, I ended up cramming five students against the back wall. I hated to do this to them, especially the new students, but I didn't have much of another option.  

For Standard 1 (NCPTS) this week, I was able to demonstrate leadership amongst my teammates and the other 7th grade teachers by volunteering to do "2nd load duty." All of the 7th grade teachers had a workshop to attend after school on Thursday so no-one was able to do 2nd load duty (usually the teachers trade off). I over heard a conversation between the principal and some of the teachers about this and they were really struggling to come up with a solution. I volunteered to do 2nd load since I was the only one on my hall who would not be at the workshop. The Principal was ok with it and the problem was solved.

For Standard 2, I want to talk about a particular student. When I first started, I was told that this student was home bound because he was receiving therapy for behavioral issues, and that I would need to prepare work for him every week. Then, I found out that he was coming back for one class a day and that would be my class. At first I thought "great, of course he comes back for my class." I had heard the stories about all the fights he got in, the way he treated teachers, and the girl who now has scars on her face from him scratching her. I was really nervous about him coming to my class. After four weeks, I can say that I have not seen even an ounce of what was described to me. I have only seen a sweet, quiet boy who struggles in math but who tries very hard. From his first day back, I have tried my absolute best to make him feel comfortable in the classroom and during the lessons and assignments. A lot of the time that meant I had to pull a chair up beside him and talk him through each problem while all of the other students flew   through them independently. My heart has really grown for this student and I want to see him succeed. Today, I was helping him and he told me "I used to be really good at math and then something happened." I simply reminded him that as we get older, our classes get a little harder, but that I knew he worked very hard and I was proud of the effort he gave. Sometimes, its not about getting a 100, but about the effort that was given.

For Standard 3 this week, my CE talked to me about BAV, Building Academic Vocabulary, and how they use it in the school and in math class. Every subject in every grade level has a list of content specific words that the students are expected to know and understand. In math class, every 9 weeks my CE assigns so many BAV words in Google Classroom. The students must find a formal definition for each word, put the definition in their own words, illustrate it with a picture, and then write about how they will use it in real life.

For Standard 4, I had to adapt my lesson plans more than once to benefit not only the many students who were absent, but the whole class. I had to stay on top of students about catching up notes and missing work, while at the same time having extension activites for the students who were not absent. I hated the idea of "punishing" these students by giving them busy work, so on "catch up day" I gave them a small test practice on area and then allowed them to read a book, work on stuff for another class, or play Math Prodigy.

For Standard 5, I spent a lot of time reflecting on school security and procedures both in my current placement and in my future classroom. In light of the tragedy in Florida, I have really been thinking about how I would handle a similar situation. I decided not to worry about my future classroom as much right now, but to focus on the present. I reviewed my school's emergency procedures and had my CE walk me through what needed to happen incase of a lock down. God willing, I will never be in this type of situation, but I want to make sure I am prepared to keep my students and myself safe should it ever happen.

Well, I'm sorry to end this post on a negative note but I think every teacher in America has had these same thoughts this week.

I hope everyone has a restful weekend and a great week next week!