Struggling

This week I am struggling.

 

 

I say this after I just returned home from attending our 7th/8th grade boys football games. An attempt in making some head way with some particularly tough kiddos. So I feel like I am going above and beyond in some aspects.

 

Think-pair-share is completely failing. Half the time students have no clue what they are supposed to even be sharing and the rest of the couples take the time to chit chat. I have tried providing examples, teaching procedures to teach-pair-share, stopping and reexplaining. Still nothing!  I feel like I am talking to the walls more than students. What are some of your tips for implementing think-pair-share in a way that will help students better understand what we are doing and actually be on task.

 

Class discussions are just painful. A warm up that brought 30 minute discussions last year, so much longer than planned but they were so invested in debating 2 year vs 4 year college who was I to stop them, was simply ignored today. I tried to stir the pot, add some bits of info to the conversation, call on them using my Popsicle stick method and still nothing. Radio silence might of been less awkward.

 

Yesterday in 3 Robotics classes I wanted the class to tell me what they are supposed to be doing with the research project we started over a week ago. I have reviewed the project everyday, they have worked on it for more than 5 days, the rubric was on the board and in their worksheet in front of them. One class took 15 students to finally completely explain the assignment and another took 20 solid minutes to answer. I feel like I am wasting class time but if I give in then I am accepting them opting out or settling with I don't knows.

 

I have a few super tough kiddos that are dragging a few classes down. I am at the point where I am reconsidering even doing the lego robotics with one particular class and it really isn't fair to the rest of the students. Those particular tough kiddos have run the gamut of my in class consequences, redirection (100 times a class period as per their ARD), reflections sheets out the wazoo, time off computers and sitting out of preferred activity time. My patience and classroom management of the entire class is suffering.

 

Last school year was hard due to disrespectful students, I was cursed at so many times and called plenty of names, but this year has been amazing as fair as my relationship with my students. I am just feeling a bit stumped about how to make some positive changes. It's not that the students are doing poorly grade wise, but I feel like they are just going through the motions and completely spacing out. Our school is focusing on the role of the learner and evaluating us based on what the learner is doing so I feel like once again I am struggling with the idea of having an administrator evaluate my classroom.

 

This post sort of took on a life of its own and was much longer than intended! Any tips or tricks would be greatly appreciated!

 

The Babbling Box!