Success!

Okay, I had been wondering how things were going to go with the new techniques and strategies I included in the classroom. So far it has been WONDERFUL!!! Students have been posting assignments and getting them out the way! I started off with 4 assignments just to let them get into the hang of how I it all works and wow were they engaged!! They were so focused I was so happy. I'm the type that likes to snap pictures whenever I see students having a wonderful learning moment, but I didn't want to distract them or ruin the mood, so I controlled myself. LOL But I am so proud right now! My class is working hard and seem to be enjoying it. We worked in one big discussion group today and discussed the reading assignments and what we have been covering in Economics and what's going on in the country currently concerning the same thing. I also introduced a new project to enforce what we have been covering in Economics. They will be planning a school dance or party with a budget of $1,000. We discussed the products and services that would be needed and how they would decide how much of what is needed (or not neccessary) and if it will fit the budget. These guys went straight to work!! They have the end of the week to have their plans prepared. I'm excitied to hear them. But I am so proud of my students right now. The next two days we will be preparing for our Friday tests and getting a heads up for next week. I am so proud of my students. I have to let them know that too.

New Ideas

Hi everyone. I just wanted to let everyone know that I have created a new blog just for my students. The purpose is to help with their writing skills and make it somewhat fun and interesting for them. On my blog, I will post the week's assignments and they are to complete the assignments and post on their own blogs that we created in class last week. I can check their blogs and grade their work. This helps with paper and ink usage, losing work or misplacing saved files. If the posts are not posted by the due dates, the grades will be given accordingly. My students will practice typing lengthy essays, which I will gradually lead them into. The assignments also include reading assignments with critical thinking questions to answers. I will also include their computer lab assingments instead of printing those out also. I got this whole idea from college. In one of my composition courses, this is how we did all of our assignments. It is also where I learned about how to blog and what blogging is. Been blogging ever since. Now my students are exposed to this feature and will have one more thing under their belts as they head into the college and career world. I hope that this proves to be effective. You all may even view the blog and let me know HERE what you think, what I could change, or some ideas I can use. I'm trying this out for the first time so I will be working out the kinks. The other purpose of this is to get my students motivated and SERIOUS about their education because it is SO IMPORTANT! They are so very intelligent, I'm just trying to get them to channel it into the right things and the right way. I thought this would be interesting to them since they are sooooo into myspace and facebook. So far it's going positively well. They worked on creating their blogs, and designing them. They were really into that, so lets see how things go tomorrow when they read their assignments on my blog. I'm also working on doing class discussions on different topics in social studies and their reading assignments. We will set the classroom up as if it is an exec office with a long table and talk. I want them to express how they feel about things and give their opinions. The purpose of this is to get them to back up what they say. If it's your thoughts, it can't be wrong, but how did you come to that? or why do you feel that way? I want them to THINK. Not just blurt out stuff and be done. Tell my why, explain yourself. And this will help in their writing because they will have to give supporting details. My plan is to have them turn in a research paper by the end of the school year. But we have a lot of work to do before then because some of them think a page is a lot. I don't know what kind of work they did in public school, but we have got to get on the ball if these guys plan to go to college after graduating. And I REFUSE to send them off unprepared. I had them take a GED practice exam (which the actual exam will be their exit exam) and I put together charts for each individual student and know each of their weak and strong areas within each subjuect. It took me HOURS to put together but it was worth it because I know EXACTLY what I'm working with. I've already started the journal writing. Students write about a quote or topic I put on the board. At the end of each day, they write 3 positive things that happened in school. I picked this idea up from when I did my student teaching. The principle had all us teachers do this each day to keep our minds on the good and positive things that happened through our crazy days. LOL So I provided the composition books (in different colors for students to pick) and have them practice writing, critical thinking, and thinking more positively. They like to point out the negative everything, so I want to help them see all the positives also. Eventually I will increase it to 5, then 10, and so on. Some are still getting the hang of it because they will write: 1. Didn't get in trouble 2. Did all my work 3. Got to go home early. LOL I want them to be more specific, but we will get there. =) For math, I am in the process now of putting together some review sheets with all the areas from the standards and we will just casually work with them. I think I will put together individual ones for each student with the areas they are struggling in. That way, as a class we are on the same page, and during independent work, they are working on that and the areas they are weak in as I come around to help. The same is for my middle schoolers. I need to prepare some charts for their weak and strong areas and I will do that by just pulling straight from the standards and recording what we need to work with. Lately, we have just been covering items from the standards sections at a time, but I don't think they had been covering a lot before a started so it's time to boogy. We have got to get on a roll and keep rolling until the last day of class. I'm excitied and want my students to be excited also. They give me so much grief during the day but I have seen what they can do so all that hassle they give me means nothing. They actually cannot understand how I put up with them. My job is not to "put up" with them, but to teach them. That is where my focus is. I know they can do it, but THEY have to know it, too. And that is my job; to help them KNOW.