My biggest success this week was planning my next two chemistry units. I looked through all the old material my mentor gave me and put together two units n my own. My mentor made some additions (a few labs) but mostly I am fully in charge of planning and teaching. My students are doing very well, and understand the material the way I am teaching it, which makes me feel that I am doing very well. We have a large quiz tomorrow, so we will see if my students really understand everything.

My biggest struggle this past week was one particular student. He has an IEP, and is a big behavior issue. He has been having a lot of trouble in my class, and my mentor and I are just helping him not be a disruption to other students at this point. Twice last week, he walked out of my class because he did not want to do what we were doing. The first time was during the final, and he did not want to sit still for an hour. The second time, I took a few different pieces of food. He wouldn’t give it to me, so when I went to call the assistant principal (part of his behavior plan) he walked out. Two of the other days he was not in class because he was in the health room and with the counselor (this kid is a chronic liar, so he makes up issues, like “my leg hurts, so I couldn’t use the stairs”). This issue is really difficult because no one really has a solution, except keep writing him up for walking out and keep track of when he is absent. I am currently working with my mentor, his learning strategies (special needs) teacher and the psychologist on campus, but all we can really do right now is keep a log of what the students does.

One thing I would like to work on is writing up each little situation rather than writing up a whole summary at the end of the week. I find I miss things, and I feel that I wouldn’t miss as much if I write many short entries each week.