I wrote in my planner for August 26, 2010, "First day of my career- no big deal." I can't believe after years of being a student, I'll finally be in charge of my own classroom. However, I'll admit I'm about 40% excited and 60% nervous. Instead of planning consequences for divergent behavior, or intricate community building lessons, or creating classroom jobs, or setting up the morning math calendar, I spent many hours every day for an entire week cleaning my classroom.
To put this into perspective without being too bias. Imagine a room being occupied by an older woman who would have technically qualified for the show called "Hoarders." They hired someone all summer to clean her classroom and her house after she left. Although it looked fairly clean, I realized how much I had to get out of the overstuffed file cabinets and shelves before I could even begin to organize the necessary curriculum and paperwork. In the process, I even found a butter-knife under files, a piece of wrapped gum in a bookshelf, and a moose bone with some meat still on it next to a dusty Rice-Krispy bar on top of another shelf. I'm leaving that there for good luck, good laughs, and possibly survival food.
I have some great people on my teaching team and we have many great plans. However, it sounds like the school and students need much reforming. This year we are hoping to introduce school rules for the first time to increase uniformity. I've witnessed some of the student behavior and am worried because respect seems to be low. Currently as part of the culture, it's expected that students will be destructive. I was walking to my house when I noticed a student on the hood of the school van (one of about 4 vehicles in the village) bending the windshield wipers. To make matters worse, two staff members were chatting near the van without even acknowledging the destructive behavior. So with my hesitant voice, I told him to stop bending them before they broke. The kid seemed shocked. The two staff members glanced up at me, back at him, and I didn't here them say anything to back me up. Three seconds later when I looked back, the boy had hoisted himself up to the very top of the van and was playing there. That boy is in my class.
It's also very much a part of the culture for the people to get something in return for having positive behavior. We are encouraged to have food or the parents won't come to Open House. Another teacher told me she gives the kids one piece of candy every day they make it through with good behavior. I'm worried because my philosophy is that good behavior is expected and exemplary behavior may or may not be rewarded. It will be my year-long goal to encourage their intrinsic motivation and create respect for others as well as themselves.
