Bragging About Unimpressive Accomplishments

I discovered recently that my blog was listed on a forum on Letsrun.com (a website for super serious runners) - on a thread about bloggers that brag about unimpressive running accomplishments.

You know what I have to say about that?

HAHAHAHAHAHA! Also, how do people know about my blog? Are there people out there who aren't related to me? Also, thanks for the traffic! I got 16 clicks through that link!

Once again, I am impressed by the respect I am shown at work, by my boss and my colleagues. At today's planning meeting, we spent about half the time lesson planning and half the time wedding plan. Having gotten married 4 months ago, my principal is kind of an expert.

Additionally, we tossed around some ideas about dealing with a particularly challenging class. One of my teams has been causing some problems. The class has a critical mass of mean girls and clown boys. As a result, the class culture has become one where students react to situations with just a little too much "extra", giggling and sneezing whenever possible, and general making it harder to learn, to the point that grades are noticeably lower than other classes.

I came up with a solution on my own, which was to focus on the class entrance. I know that if the entrance is sloppy, the whole tone of the class is off. And this class is an expert on sloppy entrances. They pile up in the hallway, joking around, knowing that I can watch either the classroom or the hallway, not both. What I've done is give them a challenge. I took away their Oral Drill Challenge privilege (the students enjoy that, and can earn team dollars) until they complete a new challenge: enter the class and have 100% pen to paper within 2 minutes. So far, they have only achieved this once (today) this week, but every class this week has been a lot better. It's much easier to start from an engaged class, then start from chaos and tone it down. This has also helped build my relationship with the entire class, because starting with chaos involves a lot of negative consequences and dollars lost; starting with an urgent and engaged class involves positive feedback over many small achievements.

The principal and I discussed this idea, and others we can put together to help this team be successful.

Once again, I'm noticing that I need to 1) come up with solutions for myself, and 2) ask for help when I need it. I am pushed to improve a lot less this year; I need to continue to hold myself accountable for getting better.

I had dinner with a colleague tonight, who mentioned that this is the time of year when we get comfortable teaching, it all comes back, and we're back in gear for a successful school year. I need to think about it that way - I'm not in a rut, I'm just getting comfortable. But still looking to improve.

Running rest week - instead of running tonight, I went out for grill cheese and cider. Not a bad way to almost-end the week.