Happy 1st Day of Spring!!! Whatever, it's still cold here in Illinois. I will celebrate Spring when it is consistently 60 degrees!
Confession time... I am terrible at following through with consequences in my classroom. As a specialist in my building who only sees my students for 1 hour a day I just find that it often takes too much of my instructional time to circle back and deal with it. Lazy? Yes, but I rarely have to turn into the "Mean Mrs. Strasser", until yesterday. My math classes have very little homework, except 60 minutes of IXL (math fluency) practice per week. 60 minutes PER WEEK. Is that really asking too much? Less than 10 minutes a day. I check every times every Monday and students who have not completed the hour get an extra homework packet, have to make up the time and owe me a homework pass. Last week a student had 14 minutes. COME ON!!! 14 minutes? I think they had more time than that in class to work. I was irritated by this so I gave him his homework packet and told him to get me a homework pass. He looked and could not find one, and then just proceeded to stand there and look at me, like I wasn't going to care. I kind of wanted to scream. Then I made him empty all of his folders and his binder in front of me before taking every one of his Terrific Tickets (classroom incentive for raffles and such). I took them all and then kindly told him that next time it would be a detention (well, maybe). BOOM, follow through felt a little good yesterday!!! my 3 best things today... #1 - Dinner is in the crockpot. Spicy chicken tacos will be ready and waiting! #2 - PARCC testing after break so I have very little lesson planning to do to get ready. #3 - Half of my sixth grade math kids are at a band concert today so the other half and I are going to work on a fun 3D shape geometry project that they will love!!!
5 Comments
Stephanie Meier
3/20/2018 07:26:47 am
Ha! Mean Mrs. Strasser.... I love it. But really, 14/60 minutes would've turned anyone a little cranky. Enjoy the fun 3D project with your kiddos!
Reply
Geoff
3/20/2018 09:32:02 am
I like how you included your three best things for the day. I might try using that at the end of my posts too!
Reply
Adrienne
3/20/2018 10:47:07 am
I often give lunch detention for small things, including getting forgotten things from lockers. Yesterday, though, 6th graders last day before outdoor school, I surprised a few by letting them go "for free".
Reply
Susan Dillon
3/20/2018 06:06:59 pm
I get what you mean about consequences - it's a pain in the neck to follow through when you don't have a lot of time. Glad you were successful with making a point this time!
Reply
Susan Kennedy
3/20/2018 06:09:15 pm
Sometimes the crockpot can really save the day.
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |