Week of 10/19-23

My biggest struggle this week was an escalating situation in my 6^th period class between one student and a group of students. One student was being harassed by others, but then was reacting violently towards those students. The situation got worse each day. I ended up writing up 6 students on Tuesday. I had asked the students harassing the one student to stay after class and none of them did. The one student was gesturing threateningly towards the other students. The assistant principal spoke to all students involved. I also changed seats around so the group of students was split up. The next day in class, there was another incident between the one student and one of the group. I split up the two students and spoke with them both individually. The next day in class there was not any apparent issues, but they might have just kept their reactions out of my class. The situation was difficult to deal with because I felt like I was running around after school talking to many different people. I had no time to do anything I needed to do because I was trying to resolve this situation.

My biggest success this week was successfully managing five different classes of students I had never taught before. Both of my mentors were out this week. One was out both Monday and Tuesday, and the other was out in the afternoon on Wednesday. I took all of their classes on both days. I was able to manage both classes as well as teach them material. Even though they had never had me before, they respected me.

Week of 9/21-9/25

My biggest successes this week was curriculum night. I felt that it went very well. I introduced myself and the class. I went over some of my policies in the class, and talked about what I expect of the students. I got feedback from a couple parents that their students have loved my class so far :). I also was told that my enthusiasm for science was infectious and that one student had never liked science before, but is already excited about my class and science classes beyond it.

My biggest struggle this week was illness, both of my students and myself. I had a great many students absent between one and several days last week. My bio class had an exam and there was a quiz and a lab in my chem class. Then I was sick and missed the day before the exam. It was difficult to get myself back on track and try to get the students back on track. In bio, I had deal with students not being ready to take the exams due to absence and I had to deal with that while the other students were taking the exam. In chem, students knew they needed to make up the quiz, and the one student who could not take the quiz studied on the side. All the students know they need to make up the quiz, lab and exam within one week. Because of my illness, I had difficulty knowing when to stay home. I had only a head cold, but that is enough to get the students and other faculty sick. I felt ill on Monday, and still went to school on Tuesday because it was curriculum night. By the end of the day I realized what a bad decision this was because I was getting more fatigued by the hour. I stayed home Wednesday, and went back on Thursday. I know now, that even with a cold, I should stay home even when I have only a cold. That one day at home helped more than I thought it would.