easily, the hardest things about second year is living up to and living down things you did in the past. as i write this, we are still dealing with the repercussions of a pretty solid fight. there are a lot of fights next to my room and kopanke's because there is a big gap there with only females (it's actually 8 different rooms in a row with only females) and traditionally, females aren't going to break up fights. last year i got into a jump to pull a kid out and, though nothing happened, in the weeks after that, there were a couple different altercations and i somehow got involved. last week two of my girls got into it in the lunch room and i had to physically restrain one while she was trying to punch the other one, and my softball girls were literally scrambling over seats to fight last thursday until i "love tapped" two of them. it's been assumed that i will get into the fight, or try to physically prevent it. i feel okay with that assumption, as i'm pretty comfortable in my hoss-ness. but today the fight was pretty intense and while i got in it as fast as i could, i definitely didn't get "in" it. after the fight when the cops were there to arrest the kids, we were talking about it and i was asked by two of my assistant principals, a security guard, and two other female teachers, "why didn't you get in there?" uhhhhhh sorry, didn't know i was getting an added bonus to get my face punched in. plus i was in a shift dress and i looked good. wasn't about to mess that dress up.
i also have to live up to specific things. i mentioned the cursing earlier, but that's something that was a big deal. i didn't curse, and i wouldn't put up with it. and i know you can pull the "i'm the teacher so i can do whatever i want to do" but i don't wear that too well. so now if i curse to get a point across or to express my anger, i feel like it lost some of its effectiveness. last year i stayed after a lot to help with state testing and ACT prep, and didn't get paid for it. i was really supportive of sporting evens and organizational activities, and not that i don't want to keep that up, but i also would like my personal life to remain in tact. i just feel like there are expectations of me that i never know if i'm fulfilling or not. the one thing i'd really hate is if someone was like, "you're not as hard as they said" or "i thought you were going to be a lot more strict."
sometimes i also find it hard to be all the way immersed in the material. you only want to go over "to kill a mockingbird" so many times. i don't want to keep trying to express malcolm x's awakening in "hair" to a bunch of students who don't get it. once you come up with a creative lesson for prepositions...it's not as fun the when you're in the 700th minute of it. it's not burnout, because i still want to be there, nd it's not that i don't want or need to teach the material. but i don't want to throw away the effective methods that i had last year just to fulfill my desire for excitement. i want something new and fresh, but a lot of those things work, and the students don't understand i've already taught that 8 or 9 times when i get to them. i wish there was a cure for that. sometimes it feels like "the mondays" every block of the week.
another hard thing about second year is the emotions, i think. i don't get shocked when there's a wicked fight or a see a young girl get pregnant. there's not much anger when i see students fail to live up to their potential. in a way, i'm worried that i've come to be okay with the status quo. i don't want to be neutral when a kid puts his head down all through class. i don't want to be okay with a 60% average as a passing grade. though i feel like i'm pretty culturally responsive, i don't want to be accepting of those things. they are not okay with me.
a hard part of second year is that i think i've lost a little of the conservative, outspoken, backwoods city girl. and i don't like that.
i won't say that i'm the most organized person in the world, but i think i'm pretty good at keeping track of stuff. i've found a couple things that work for me, and hopefully someone can use them.
1. DECISIONS, DECISIONS, DECISIONS. i take a lot of time for pretty much everything. i think about organization in the beginning - what do i need to keep track of for the rest of the year? how can i distinguish my personal and professional "to-do" lists? where do my grades go? how many binders do i have to lug around? how will i deal with constantly changing rosters? where will i keep rewards? how do i keep track of discipline? if you're a binder person, use a binder. if you like a computer, do everything digital. you may work better with legal pad, with a stack of looseleaf paper, or maybe even a trapper keeper. but the important thing is use what works for YOU. i use notecards for to-dos, and i do everything by hand. i don't do any grades or anything on the computer until the very end. i just feel like it puts too much crap on my computer, and it's a lot harder to sort through and find things on a computer than in a folder (i think). i use one binder for attendance, behavior, grades, parent contacts, discipline, seating charts, and sub material. i have another binder that has ALL my lesson plans in it in sheet protectors so that when my kids are absent, they just go up to the red binder on the podium and take out the lesson and any handouts. i get rid of all of my extra handouts (unless it's a full class) after i've distributed them to my class and i only keep an answer sheet(s) and a sheet or packet to copy the next time around for the students. if i keep 18 copies of something extra just because i had extra, it piles up like you wouldn't believe. i don't have much storage in my classroom, and i use it the best way that i can. i store all my handouts (master class copy and answer sheet) in a manilla folder in my file cabinet, clearly labeling on the outside what the item inside is, what general lesson it can go with ("simile," "mechanics odds and ends"), an MDE competency, and then either a smile or a frown. the smile means it was regular classwork, and the frown means it was punishment or extra work. for some reason, i have a LOT of frowns in my files...
2. I'M COLORED. something that REALLY works for me is color. i use colored notecards for bathroom and pen passes, i only grade in green or purple, i check bellwork with an orange sharpie, i use colored sheets of paper and i buy little paper tabs to make dividers, i use the same color for each class (red for 1A, orange for 2A, etc.), i use the same colors of dry-erase for specific things, i always write my classroom stuff in black ink, and i try to highlight things in the same colors. it makes things sooooo much easier. if i need something for, i know exactly where to go, just by the color, and then i can go from there. the students are only allowed to write in black in, so my green and purple show up well, and the orange sharpie is really obvious as well.
3. DO AS I SAY. make your students do their paper like you want to grade it. if you want print, tell them it has to be in print. pencil hard to read? make them use only ink. teach them how to properly write a heading, or what is acceptable to have on their paper. i still get girls who want to draw hearts or bubbles over their "i"s or write their "e" like the number "3". i simple circle it all over the paper the first time i see it and tell them to write the words like they see them in the textbook. i don't care about sloppy handwriting, if i recognize most of the letters, i'll figure it out. but to doodle or just draw crap instead of letters? nope. golden rule (even though it's number 5 on my classwork rules) - "write clearly and legibly at all times. if i can't read it, it's wrong." there's also pretty strict guidelines about if they can skip lines, where they start on the page, and several other things. this makes my life easier when i grade. i don't have to look for crap everywhere, i can just identify it (or should be able to) quickly on the paper and grade it.
4. GET YOUR GROOVE ON. perhaps the biggest key to organization was developing a routine that works for me. i'm a morning person, so my alarm is set for 4.12 every morning. depending on what needs to be done, i either go to the gym and shower or get things done around the house and shower. i eat breakfast, go over my stuff for school, write out a brief "to-do" list for the day - on a colored notecard - and i keep that with me. i try to get to school at the same time every day so i can socialize and prep and breathe. i stay hard-core on a time schedule with my kids. bellwork is listed as "5 minutes" on the board, but they know that means 3 minutes from when the bell rings and then 2 minutes for me to check it as i walk around the room giving directions for the next task. stay on a time schedule during class helps me keep my sanity and the kids in control. after school i keep the softball girls on a schedule - i pick them up from the auditorium by 3.35, they're dressed, fed, and ready to go by 3.55 and we either hop on the bus or start running at 4.00 on the dot. we practice till 5.25, take 5 minutes to put the equipment up, and then i take the hour (i'm not kidding, most of the time it's an hour) where i wait for their rides to go over things - either make a couple phone calls, talk to other sponsors, or read the paper. when i get home i unpack, cook, eat, and figure out what i need to do for the next day. i'm normally all set by about 8.00 and i make some more phone calls, read, and am (hopefully) asleep by 9.00. most of my errands and chores are done on the weekends, but it can get messy at times. as we speak, i have about 2 weeks of laundry waiting to be cleaned. i could use a trip to the grocery, and i need to scrub my floors and vacuum out my car. the routine still isn't perfect, but it's definitely helped with my stress level.
it's definitely been a trial and error process, but i think that i've found a lot of things that work for me to stay organized. i'm not sure they would work for everyone else (or anyone else, for that matter), but they really do work for me. the first thing you need to do when you're trying to get organized is look at what you need - do you have a time management problem, do you forget things, are you a procrastinator, do you lose your keys every day, do you never seem to have a pen when you need it? you need to analyze your situation and figure out what you need before you can adopt different organizational tips and tricks.
