Thursday, May 14, 2009

There is Hope!

Well, at least for part of the day there was.

The kids were better today!  Like yesterday, I carried a class list around with me all day and I made notes on specific behaviors by the students.  When they were on task I put a star next to their name.  When they were not, I marked next to their name with a letter.  "O" was for "off task or out of seat", "T" was for "talking", "D" was for "disrespectful", etc.  I think I had 9 letter codes - one was "M" for "being mean to others" but I never had to use that! Yay!  Anyways, my two trouble girls from yesterday were, for some reason, really into the chart today, and kept coming up to me every 15-20 minutes asking how many stars they had.  Whenever they had more from the time before they got really excited.  I also had to send one of the girls to recess timeout because of yesterday, but she didn't put up a fight about it, or turn surly on me.  She seemed to think that she deserved it, so that was good.  I was afraid that was going to ruin her afternoon for me, but it didn't.

The 3 troublesome boys from yesterday however only improved a little.  Two of them didn't seem to care one little bit about the chart, but at least it worked for some!

I was feeling good by the late afternoon because I'd had no disrespect problems from the class (which I had a lot of yesterday), and while they weren't perfect, they seemed to be making an effort.  

But then they went to PE.  And when I went to pick them up from PE I learned that 2 girls (my two I'd been working with all day) had been sent to the office, and only SIX of the students had been following directions every time.  Oddly, the ones the PE teacher told me had been good were some that had not been good for me, and lots that had been good for me were among the misbehaving group.

So by this point they were feeling ornery again, and the last 30 minutes of the day was a bit of a struggle.  But it was better for a while at least, and I didn't leave feeling as defeated as I have for the past 2 days.  Tomorrow, I have no job yet.  I guess this teacher is coming back, but last night she decided she couldn't come after 8pm, so that could still change.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am so glad that today was better! Clever idea, the chart you made for them to track how they were doing. Too bad they couldn't keep it up for the whole day. Hope you get a good nights sleep and have a fun weekend.
Hugs, Rhonda

Betty said...

Little improvements mean a lot when they have been so bad. Another day of good experience that will help you in another class at some point. Sweet dreams tonight - see you tomorrow! Love you!!! MOM