Today's attire is brought to you by Urban Outfitters and Target. This is actually the first time I've worn this dress. I bought it back in December when UO had a sale which was a 50% off all sale items sale the day after Christmas. I haven't worn it though because I'm really self conscience in clothing without sleeves and I never had a tank top to go under it, which I definitely need because the dress comes down far too low for my liking. The gray tank top, the white chevron tights, and the gold shoes (which you cannot see) are all from Target. Little known fact, I love Target and UO, and most of my clothes that do not come from thrift stores probably come from either of those two. The tights were actually on sale for like $1.75? I bought them on my trip home. I love them and I should have bought more!
Today at the school we mostly played the name game. Man, I am so overwhelmed by the amount of names I have to know. I'm probably going to look over names tonight. I think I have advisory and Bell 1 down, but once they come in I forget them. I have talked to a few people 1-on-1 and that helps me remember their names better! While we were playing the name game in one of the classes I saw one of the students mouthing words to someone outside the door, so I walked over to the door to see who he was talking to. Right when I stepped to the window I saw a student from another class (who was waiting for his locker to be assigned) sticking both of his middle fingers up to the kid in my class. I walked outside to ask him what he was doing and he told me he was pointing his index fingers up to the kid. Yeah, sure. So I asked him his name and walked back in to write his name and the situation so I wouldn't forget. I walked back out and told him I wanted to talk to him after school. My mentor teacher told me to give him a detention. So, I wrote my first detention slip. BUT my good friend did not show up after school, so I was told to give him a Thursday night school. We'll have a nice chat tomorrow. I'm not out to get students, but 1. that situation was uncalled for, and 2. I'm not okay with people walking all over me. In the last class my mentor teacher stepped out to talk with another student and as I was helping a student the class started talking. I told them that they were supposed to be silent but a few girls wouldn't listen. So, I told them I had already written a detention and I could do it again. That made them quiet. The one thing I need to work on is my authority while making myself personable to the students. We'll see...
I wish I could say this was the detention slip because that would mean I was teaching at Hogwarts, but, unfortunately, it's not.
A few things I want to note for myself and all my teacher friends are procedures my mentor teacher did/told me today. Every day he goes through the same procedures (students do the silent warm up, homework, and then class response to warm up). A few students in different classes already had their homework sheet/assignment books out while they were doing their warm ups. My mentor teacher would stop by these students and say, "I caught a student being good during the warm up. So and so has already caught onto the procedure that I go over homework after the warm up." At this point the students all got out where they wrote down the homework for the night. I love his idea of positive reinforcement for the students. I have to remember to do this often. Also, we had a pre-made lesson that we have to do for as a teacher of the school regarding the core values and it involved getting students into groups of 5. My mentor teacher told me we weren't going to follow that procedure because it is too early to allow students to work in groups, and especially groups of 5. He usually has a whole lesson on teaching the students the procedures of working in groups and he said that we aren't even close to the point of teaching them that step yet. Although all this stuff is really boring and dragging on, once the students learn it he will have a well managed class.
I'm trying to get to know my students better. I found out two play volleyball and I told the one I would love to have a schedule to go to one of her games. So, anyone want to join me when I figure it out? Once school gets going I'm going to spend a lot of time there. I have to stay after on Mondays and Wednesdays for meetings (until UC starts and I have to go to class on Wednesday evening) and I have to stay after for help group on Tuesdays and Thursdays especially during the first few weeks because my mentor teacher is actually teaching a class on classroom management for UC, but I'll have to stay after that anyways. I'm really excited for the opportunity to be this involved in the school, but man oh man, my whole week will be shot because I won't get home until 5ish (possibly later) and I usually go to sleep now at 10 because I'm an old woman and have to wake up early. I'm not going to complain though because I've been so content with my life these past few weeks, and I'm loving this opportunity.
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