Dependent Clauses

This week was pretty simple, for being in a middle school. Nothing too exciting happened but there was good learning that took place, at least in my room. That is why I would rate this week at a 4. I’m afraid to give it a five with the fear that next week would be a one. 

Observe: One accomplishment/achievement I had this week was that I was pleasantly surprised by one student in my classroom and his willingness to learn this week. He is usually disinterested but for some reason, this week, he was like a new student. He is the student I have chosen for my behavior plan and I have been trying different strategies trying to get him to focus on the work and not other things and whether or not it was me, this week has been a good week for him. He actually asked me what he was supposed to be doing and apologized for being off task (which is a miracle!). He is a sweet kid but his home life is sub par but I want him to have a chance because he can do the work if he wants to. This week, he showed me that he is capable and can do the work if he has proper guidance and he knows that somebody cares about him. 

Reflect: I learned that students do not like to write but they need to desperately!! We are currently working on a DBQ (document based question) for the French Revolution. It is like pulling teeth to get the students to think and even worse if you want them to write something. There are 8 DBQ’s that they have to complete and then use those answers to write an essay about the causes of the French Revolution. When I said essay, some of them could have fallen in the floor. So this week, I had them write a paragraph about ways they would change the government in France and why, just to get a taste of their writing. IT WAS AWFUl. Their grammar was terrible and there were incomplete sentences all over the place. I only had 5 requirements. Students had to title the paper what I told them to (I even wrote it on the board and gave them time to write it), indent the first sentence, tell me how they would change the government, tell me why they would change the government, and write five complete sentences. All I can say is, differentiating between independent and dependent clauses is not their thing. That being said, next week we are going to continue working on the DBQs and hopefully write their first paragraph of their essay. I am going to walk them through the first paragraph (that will contain a thesis) and remind them how to write a complete sentence. 

Focus: This week students were required to put themselves in the position of changing the government in France. I want students to see that the learning they do in this room is related to the outside world. They made their recommendations and discussed why theirs were similar to the peoples’ in France. I hope that students make the connections between my classroom and the world they live in. 

Be Productive: I could have spent more time working on my portfolio, no joke. I need to kick it into high gear and this week was not my week. Short weeks are harder than long weeks in my opinion but that is irrelevant. 

Have Courage: I’m going to switch this one up. This week I gave someone silent lunch. He was disrupting class and I was so ill he got silent lunch. This was where my decision showed out my indecision. I was proud (it sounds silly) and I am glad I was not indecisive. 

Begin Anew: The first steps for next week is to focus and prepare for writing and to help my students the best I can become good writers. With all of the technology, students are becoming worse writers and communicators and next week I am going to help them become better communicators through writing. 

Data Analyzed: This week I looked at their paragraphs they wrote and realized that WOAH! They are terrible writers. This helped me decide how I was going to go about assisting them with their DBQ essay. 

Standard 1: This week I focused on leading in my school. We had a meeting on a student and I participated and helped give input when needed because I have been her teacher for the past couple of weeks I really felt like I could be helpful in the meeting. 

Standard 2: I also tried to incorporate more diversity into my classroom by focusing on black history month this month. This is a great way to make my room more diverse but I need to work on it at other times in my lessons. 

Standard 3: I have also been really trying to dive deep into the content and learn more about the subject myself. 

Standard 4: This week I tried to not be as direct with my student and facilitate learning more with my students. 

Standard 5: I am trying to go with the flow and operate in a complex environment because that is hard for me because I need things to be structured to function.