Thursday, February 11

Thursdays are my easier days, so my classes with my kids went pretty well. We’re learning about positive, comparative and superlative in language right now, and some of my kids just don’t get it. So I’ve been trying to review and review it in class and practice it, do word equations to help it make sense. English grammar is just not the easiest to teach with all its exceptions. I promised my kids another hour for GAME DAY since we didn’t on Tuesday, so I have them our seatwork hour for it today. Afterwards, I had tutorias for reading and language, which ended up being a flop. I tried doing this ‘word equation’ to help them understand the positive, comparative and superlative (ie: tall, taller, tallest), but they didn’t get it. Maybe it was too complicated or advanced for them. I also had a meeting with Mr. Calderon about my GAME DAY strategy. He basically said if I wanted to do something like that, I needed to let the office know ahead of time (which I can’t because it depends on my kids behavior when they get it). He also said instead of doing it the way I was, instead I should do it that if all the kids get above (for example) an 80 on test or quiz, then I give the class a letter. The problem with this is that some students, no matter what, will not get that grade. So because of one student, I won’t give a letter? How will that student feel then? While I understood what he was trying to say, that if I motivate with academics, there will be a double benefit (higher grades and a game day), I don’t know how well he understands how to motivate an entire class to have good behavior. I already have an individual reward system, which works pretty well. I don’t know; we’ll see how I can honor what he was asking while still doing what’s best for my classroom. The power went out tonight at our house for the first time in a while, so I had to grade some stuff by candlelight; I felt like I was back in the olden days doing my homework by candlelight. Oh Honduras….