flurry- not the Micky-D kind, either
// November 3rd, 2009 // Comments
I have had a lot of success and even more failure in the past quarter of this year, and I have been holding that in instead of sharing with those that check this site. If you are reading right now I owe you an apology for not being a consistent poster. It has felt good to take a break from it all, but I have lost sight of why I started in the first place.
If I can jump right in- and I can, it’s 50% my site 
– today was tough. I was so happy I had an active hands on activity planned for the first few days back from break. I thought it would give students a chance to ease back into the classroom without the need to be constantly talking over me trying to lecture or interrupting each other during individual work. The problem, though, was that they are still enjoying talking over each other and insulting one another than they are enjoying working on these posters. We are going to struggle to get it done on time, and it is the first time all semester I have fallen behind where I wanted to be. It’s frustrating, and I’ve had to make compromises with students to get us back on track. I know it isn’t the end of the world, and the majority of the students are doing quality work, it’s just hard to be ok with the level of…ahem…enthusiasm?…of the students. I know things will settle down, and I’m hoping a new and vastly improved seating chart might cool the jets of some high fliers. Why is it we always feel we need vacations after vacations?
-Jarred
13 Responses to “flurry- not the Micky-D kind, either”
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- Michelle Baldwin said: Nice post, Dale. I like the connection to "motion"...
- admin said: To muddy the water some more, Joe, what does one d...
- Joe said: Passion helps, and is indeed a benefit to the teac...
- Lindsay said: How crazy to think about how far technology has co...
- Lindsay said: I am experiencing summer fever almost as much as I...
- admin said: The technology class will show where the light swi...
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I may not be a teacher yet, but I can definitely feel your pain. At my practicum last semester the week after Spring Break was basically a free for all, and it sounds a lot like what you’re going through..
The whole ordeal made me feel guilty about what I put my teachers through, not just in elementary school, but all the way up until my senior year in high school.
..if only we could all realize what we put our teachers through WHILE we are still in school.
I hope things quiet down for you soon, good luck!
Thank you Mary
as always comments and collaboration always welcome. Glad you are headed to Education. Please let us know about your journey.
I can definitely understand where you come from on this Jarred. I am a college student with a secondary education major and I am currently participating in a practicum. I observe a sophomore and junior chemistry class that is filled with high ability learners. Observing the days after breaks is fairly crazy just because of the craziness of the kids. It is hard enough to observe without wanting to try to get the kids under control and I cannot imagine what it would feel like being a teacher.
I can also understand what you are saying about being behind on your curriculum. This is one thing I have been thinking about lately, being able to create a curriculum that covers what needs to be covered, follows a set schedule, and leaves time for extra work on subjects as well as lost time like snow days. I think this would be a very hard thing to do as a teacher, especially when you are planning for a whole year. Well I hope things get better inside the classroom for you!
I agree with Mary on the last part about realizing what we put our teachers through when we are in school.. I realized in my practicum when I went to teach my lesson that a substitute probably feels the exact same things when I went to teach my lesson. The kids in my class are really well behaved, but when the guy that I have my practicum with and I went to teach our lesson that was to be evaluated.. It was a little bit of chaos at times because we weren’t the students’ normal teacher. They behaved, but not as well as they could have. I can now sympathize with all of the subs that my classmates and I used to not behave the best for when they were teaching. It has got to be pretty hard to have a job as a substitute teacher like many of the retirees who want a part-time job and teachers who are fresh out of college. It probably is a thing that can make or break a teacher too…
I really like the idea of easing back into the daily grind with a hands on activity. I’m sorry to hear it didn’t pan out quite like you expected. However, it’s a student thing….vacations, snow days, holidays…they get the kids going. When I was in school, my administration tried an experimental schedule that included an early dismissal every Friday. Well….disaster is about the only word that covers it. Every class period was shortened so teachers had less time to cover material, the students were off their typical routine and nothing got done. Needless to say, it was only temporary. Anyway – the struggles of controlling students are challenging enough without the added distractions of breaks/vacations, but hang in there. When summer rolls around, you may be surprised at how much your students really have accomplished!
I am not yet a teacher. However, I have felt that feeling of wanting another vacation right after getting back from vacation. For me, spring break in college was very hard. It was just long enough to give me that feel of summer that made coming back very hard. However, as a hard working student I worked my way through those feelings.
My group in my ethics in education class is working on a project in which we are exploring the importance of passion in education. This seems to fit very well. If students are losing that passion due to the feeling of wanting to be back on vacation can inhibit their education. For me, in high school and middle school it worked best when the teachers sort of eased us back into the swing of things when coming back from a long break. Sometimes it would be playing some sort of review game or doing some sort of review assignment to help us get back to what we were learning in a fun way. When we had fun, it made us happier, and more driven to learn, which then got us back into the school mode and helped us dig back into our studies. I’m sure this is not the only way to do things, but it worked well in many of my classes in high school and middle school.
I understand exactly where you are coming from, even though I am not quite a teacher yet. I can still feel your pain. I am currently teaching dance classes and it gets so frusterating when the students do not want to pay attention or are messing around and not listening. I get very annoyed and feel as though I need a vaction, as you said. Going into the teaching field you need patience. Patience is part ofevery teachers life. Students come from everywhere and can learn things differently which means teachers need to take into account all learning types.
In my dance classes I have students that are constantly zoned out and are distracted by the mirrors(the girls are about ages 4-5). This is just a chance for me to come up with new ideas for teaching and to keep them wanting to dance and learn more. This is one thing I am excited for in the teaching field. I won’t be doing the same thing over and over again. Every day is a new day with new ideas. Every year will be filled with new students that act differently than the others. I have a feeling I will never get bored with teaching–yes maybe frusterating as though I need a ‘vaction’ but certianly never bored.
My teacher is currently going through the same problem. We just got back from spring break recently and the students in my practicum are “off the walls” to say. They are constantly talking and it seems like they can’t sit still and just do their work. It doesn’t help that we just recently got a new teacher for the year because the normal homeroom teacher had hip surgery.
The new teacher is still getting everything done that needs to be accomplished, but she’s having to remind the students to stay on track more and has to push them to work unlike when snow was on the ground. It doesn’t help that the students can see the other children outside for P.E. through our windows either. I don’t know how many times I have caught a student looking out the window and had to remind them to work.
My teacher and I have recently discovered that if we can take that students outside for ten minutes in the morning and ten minutes in the afternoon that they are so much more focused and they aren’t so anxious and “off the wall”. If possible you might want to try something like this because I know not only do the students want to go outside I do to and it helps me concentrate as well as the students.
I feel your pain, and I know that I talked over my teachers both in elementary and high school. My feelings toward how I acted back then are that I am sorry for how I acted. If I could go back and change them then I would, but it is like what was said earlier. Students don’t understand the power that their behavior has on the classroom and other students. It took me working as a teacher and gaining more responsibility to know how important it was to act politely in a classroom setting. Hang in there and work towards helping your students understand how they are making you feel.
I have yet to do my practicum or student teaching but I both of my parents are teachers and they would agree greatly with this post. Even when I was a student I could see this but when I was a student I felt like many teachers piled a lot of work on after a vacation and then as a student you really felt stressed with all this work to do and you were hoping for another vacation real soon. Now that I am going into teaching I will see the other side of it in the future and will have to find ways to keep these kids more active and more focused. Great post…
For this reason, is why many people want to see schools go for the full year and not have a 3 month summer vacation. During a vacation we forget everything so we can just relax, and the longer the vacation the more we relax, so jumping back into school is incredibly tough. In these situations, students should be drawn back in slowly so they don’t feel like they just hit a steep mountain that they can’t climb. Involve the students stories into lessons and projects so that students are working, yet still enjoying themselves. If you give the student time to adjust, you will most likely see a better adjustment (in my opinion), than if you forced them back into the regular schedule.
I disagree with LaShanna to have a full year school system instead of the 3 month vacation break. I think it is rewarding the students for their hard work to have this time off. Also I believe that if students were in school during the summer months they would not be paying attention but would just be thinking of all the things they wish they could be doing. I do not think it should be about the quantity of teaching, but rather the quality of teaching.
I agree with what Janelle says about quality, not quantity of teaching. In the summer students and teachers would be distracted by the beautiful weather outside and lose focus on what is important. Think about your own childhood, most of your memories come from summer vacation, or at least most of mine do!