Merry Christmas everyone!
It's hard to believe that Christmas break is a few hours away! We have school until noon tomorrow and then we are FREE!!! Can you tell I'm a little bit excited?
The Christmas season is certainly a magical one. I love being at work during Christmas time. Although we don't have a "work party" during December, we have two days specifically set aside to celebrate. They are dubbed the Centennial "PIG OUT" and faculty members sign up to bring food. All day long you can step into the faculty room and have a treat. It's absolutely wonderful. PIG OUT days were last Wednesday and Thursday (12/14 and 12/15). Thursday the 15th I had a special ed district training though. I was kind of sad I missed out because I heard that the food was very good that day. District training made up for it by having a potluck for new teachers. I brought Crunchy Chicken Salad and it was a hit! We all got to sit around and chat while eating yummy food. The best part was when Shauna Raby, one of the district ladies, showed us some videos she had made using our pictures. They were funny!
The man in the video, Joel, went through the Special Ed program at BYU with me and this video cracks me up.
The three guys in the video above are absolutely HILARIOUS.
The one you've all been waiting for! (Me.)
We got out around 1:00 that day. I had a full day sub because I didn't think there was any reason to go back for only two periods. Plus, if a sub works for more than half a day, they automatically get a full day's pay. Am I going to go back and let the sub leave and still get paid? No stinking way! So what did I do? Go Christmas shopping! The weekend is absolutely insane, so I had to go during the week. It was nice to get that out of the way.
Speaking of Christmas presents, I made caramel popcorn balls for coworkers on Sunday. I made two batches, which yielded between 50-60 popcorn balls! Thank heavens my sister and her friend were there to help me! Saran wrapping popcorn balls all by myself would have been tricky. They turned out wonderfully delicious. I felt like Santa Clause going around at work with my plastic bag full of popcorn balls. I think they were a hit though! I also received a mini loaf of bread from Lisa Fisher (history teacher), some homemade jam from Rae McAdams (math teacher), and a goody bag from Julie Hillman (fellow special ed teacher). I feel so loved!
Merry Christmas everyone!
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Still beating myself up.
My 7th period has been a challenge lately. It all started when I had a sub a couple weeks ago and all hell broke loose in my classroom. (I don't mean to say that, but there really is no other description that truly fits the scenario.) From what I understand, one kid was going around punching other kids and when one of them retaliated by kicking him back, the punching kid went at him with a stapler.
Now. When I say punching and kicking and possible freaky stapling, it wasn't leaving bruises or anything, but it was horseplay that was completely inappropriate for school (or anywhere if you ask me). Apparently the sub was 19 years old and looked about 12, so her attempts to get the misbehaving boys to calm down were futile. Under some sort of divine inspiration, a math teacher came into my classroom to give me something and saw the complete anarchy and sent three boys to to the principal's office.
Yeah...
Ever since then, many of the students have been quite vocal in their disdain for a particular student or two.
This breaks my heart because I know this student would thrive under positive peer attention or feedback, but due to his behavior, he is now the enemy of the class. This doesn't help the general atmosphere of the class because he isn't a particularly quiet child and will defend himself to the death if need be.
Basically, the negative comments and energy in that class are somewhat terrifying. Therefore, I have been racking my brain for interventions to help the students in this particular period.
After talking to a teacher across the hall, I decided to put tally marks on the board and students have the chance to earn a party. For every negative comment a tally mark gets erased.
At the end of the period we will count up the tally marks and when they reach a certain number, they will get a party.
I introduced this intervention today and one student lost all of the points for the class. Yikes. Something must be done!
I'll have to let you know what I decide to do about that.
I introduced this party idea about 15 minutes into the period. So, there were quite a few negative comments being thrown around before this. Finally I told a student that was talking out quite frequently that if he talked again without raising his hand and receiving permission, he would go to ISS (in school suspension). Guess what happened though. He tested my threat and I didn't follow through. It gets worse though. One student raised her hand and said, "Not to be negative, but didn't you say that if he talked again he would have to go to ISS?" I was a little in shock about that and all I could say was, "Yes I did." And that was it! I didn't do anything about it.
The rest of the period wasn't too bad, even though we lost all of the points.
After school ended, I was so distraught over my inability to follow through with a consequence, that I couldn't get any work done and I just went home and watched TV for about an hour and a half. I finally dragged myself off the couch and went to the gym and then ran to the grocery store afterwards. I was still feeling pretty bad about things though.
Are you feeling my pain? Maybe you're laughing. Or maybe you're saying, "AUDRYN. Follow through girl! You need to grow a spine!" Don't worry though - I have a possible remedy.
I confessed my pathetic inability to follow through on consequences to my roommate, a former middle school English teacher, and she came up with a solution!
She said that because I didn't say when I would send the kid to ISS, I can still follow through! She said maybe it's even better because there has been a time period for everyone to cool off and really think about what happened. So here's the plan: before 7th period tomorrow I will go tell this student that he is to go to ISS for 7th period because of his behavior the day before. He may complain, but all I have to say is that he knew what the expectation was and so he has to deal with the consequences.
:)
Maybe there's still hope for me. And for that student.
-Ms. Damron-
Now. When I say punching and kicking and possible freaky stapling, it wasn't leaving bruises or anything, but it was horseplay that was completely inappropriate for school (or anywhere if you ask me). Apparently the sub was 19 years old and looked about 12, so her attempts to get the misbehaving boys to calm down were futile. Under some sort of divine inspiration, a math teacher came into my classroom to give me something and saw the complete anarchy and sent three boys to to the principal's office.
Yeah...
Ever since then, many of the students have been quite vocal in their disdain for a particular student or two.
This breaks my heart because I know this student would thrive under positive peer attention or feedback, but due to his behavior, he is now the enemy of the class. This doesn't help the general atmosphere of the class because he isn't a particularly quiet child and will defend himself to the death if need be.
Basically, the negative comments and energy in that class are somewhat terrifying. Therefore, I have been racking my brain for interventions to help the students in this particular period.
After talking to a teacher across the hall, I decided to put tally marks on the board and students have the chance to earn a party. For every negative comment a tally mark gets erased.
At the end of the period we will count up the tally marks and when they reach a certain number, they will get a party. I introduced this intervention today and one student lost all of the points for the class. Yikes. Something must be done!
I'll have to let you know what I decide to do about that.
I introduced this party idea about 15 minutes into the period. So, there were quite a few negative comments being thrown around before this. Finally I told a student that was talking out quite frequently that if he talked again without raising his hand and receiving permission, he would go to ISS (in school suspension). Guess what happened though. He tested my threat and I didn't follow through. It gets worse though. One student raised her hand and said, "Not to be negative, but didn't you say that if he talked again he would have to go to ISS?" I was a little in shock about that and all I could say was, "Yes I did." And that was it! I didn't do anything about it.
The rest of the period wasn't too bad, even though we lost all of the points.
After school ended, I was so distraught over my inability to follow through with a consequence, that I couldn't get any work done and I just went home and watched TV for about an hour and a half. I finally dragged myself off the couch and went to the gym and then ran to the grocery store afterwards. I was still feeling pretty bad about things though.
Are you feeling my pain? Maybe you're laughing. Or maybe you're saying, "AUDRYN. Follow through girl! You need to grow a spine!" Don't worry though - I have a possible remedy.I confessed my pathetic inability to follow through on consequences to my roommate, a former middle school English teacher, and she came up with a solution!
She said that because I didn't say when I would send the kid to ISS, I can still follow through! She said maybe it's even better because there has been a time period for everyone to cool off and really think about what happened. So here's the plan: before 7th period tomorrow I will go tell this student that he is to go to ISS for 7th period because of his behavior the day before. He may complain, but all I have to say is that he knew what the expectation was and so he has to deal with the consequences.
:)
Maybe there's still hope for me. And for that student.
-Ms. Damron-
Thursday, December 8, 2011
CMS Dance Recital
Centennial has ballroom dance classes as electives and I went to the recital tonight.
Can I just say that it was legit?! The kids did a fantastic job. It was really neat seeing some of my kids perform. There are some talented dancers in there. All I can say is don't stop dancing! Build that talent and see where you end up!
Instead of listening to the announcement or checking the calendar to see what events are going on, I talked to the teacher across the hall and she mentioned that she was going to the recital. I would have gone with her last night, but I had institute and I was in charge of the food. So I invited one of my roommates, RachelAnne and we went tonight.
It was actually much better than I would have though. It was slightly humorous to see some short young men who haven't quite hit their growth spurt dancing with girls a head taller then them. They'll grow into themselves. Hopefully. haha
I can't wait to go to school tomorrow and tell my students how much I enjoyed watching them! I'm glad I went. :)
-Ms. Damron-
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Good-bye Miss Val
One of our Special Ed paras, Val, quit. Her last day was Wednesday (yesterday) and I just want to cry!
I can't get mad at her though because she quit so that she could stay home with her baby. Miss Val had a cute baby girl during the summer and the baby-sitter got another job. It was too crazy trying to find random baby-sitters here and there, so Miss Val quit to stay home and be a mom. I'm trying to convince myself that I'm happy for her, but I'm just plain depressed...and a little terrified to face my dear students alone. Hopefully they hire another para soon!
In honor of Miss Val leaving, I had my students make her thank-you/good-bye notes. We made them on Monday and Tuesday during block days. I gave the students these guidelines:
-include her name
-write 4-6 sentences
-thank her for something
-close it with sincerely, thank-you, whatever
-make it colorful and fun
-make it meaningful
The 4-6 sentences was a bit of a stretch, but at least it let them know that they had to actually write something.
After those instructions, I let them do what they wanted. I was so surprised with the clever ideas the kids came up with!
In my first period, one boy cut out a Christmas tree, another boy made his into a little laptop card and even drew the "Apple/Mac" computer logo on the front. Another boy included his phone number and offered his baby-sitting services. He told me it was his first self-promotion. I didn't have the heart to tell him that the only time she would need a baby-sitter would be during the same time he was in school...
My second period is going to miss her the most. There are a couple of 8th grade boys in there who gave her a hard time sometimes, but Val is so witty and funny that she won them over. Miss Val told me that after I told the students that she was leaving, he was super nice to her. She said "I should leave more often!" In this period, that same boy wrote a heartfelt note and said that he was probably going to fail all of his classes without her. He also told her that she shouldn't leave because he was more important than her baby. In her slightly sarcastic way, Miss Val said "Actually...my baby is more important than you." That cracked me up.
My 7th period was a bit...interesting. One boy was "overjoyed" that she was leaving and asked if he had to write a note. I said yes and although he proclaimed that he was going to write all sorts of things (like "good-bye forever - I won't miss you" or "I loved it when you sat in the corner and glared at me") he actually made a really cute note and put a lot of effort into it. He made a little purse with a bear sticking out of it and then he wrote little messages on hearts and put them in the purse! I thought it was fantastic! Another boy made a "frog purse." It had a little handle, which made it a purse, but it was in the shape of a frog head and when you opened it, the note was on the tongue! How cute is that?!
Here are some pictures. See if you can spot the letters I talked about:
Good-bye Miss Val - I will miss you!
-Ms. Damron-
Oh! And before I forget, on the last day she was there, Ms. Val gave me a sweet present. She gave me some fake yellow roses because she knows those are my favorite. She also framed a "Certificate of Awesomeness." It was so cute.
I can't get mad at her though because she quit so that she could stay home with her baby. Miss Val had a cute baby girl during the summer and the baby-sitter got another job. It was too crazy trying to find random baby-sitters here and there, so Miss Val quit to stay home and be a mom. I'm trying to convince myself that I'm happy for her, but I'm just plain depressed...and a little terrified to face my dear students alone. Hopefully they hire another para soon!
In honor of Miss Val leaving, I had my students make her thank-you/good-bye notes. We made them on Monday and Tuesday during block days. I gave the students these guidelines:
-include her name
-write 4-6 sentences
-thank her for something
-close it with sincerely, thank-you, whatever
-make it colorful and fun
-make it meaningful
The 4-6 sentences was a bit of a stretch, but at least it let them know that they had to actually write something.
After those instructions, I let them do what they wanted. I was so surprised with the clever ideas the kids came up with!
In my first period, one boy cut out a Christmas tree, another boy made his into a little laptop card and even drew the "Apple/Mac" computer logo on the front. Another boy included his phone number and offered his baby-sitting services. He told me it was his first self-promotion. I didn't have the heart to tell him that the only time she would need a baby-sitter would be during the same time he was in school...
My second period is going to miss her the most. There are a couple of 8th grade boys in there who gave her a hard time sometimes, but Val is so witty and funny that she won them over. Miss Val told me that after I told the students that she was leaving, he was super nice to her. She said "I should leave more often!" In this period, that same boy wrote a heartfelt note and said that he was probably going to fail all of his classes without her. He also told her that she shouldn't leave because he was more important than her baby. In her slightly sarcastic way, Miss Val said "Actually...my baby is more important than you." That cracked me up.
My 7th period was a bit...interesting. One boy was "overjoyed" that she was leaving and asked if he had to write a note. I said yes and although he proclaimed that he was going to write all sorts of things (like "good-bye forever - I won't miss you" or "I loved it when you sat in the corner and glared at me") he actually made a really cute note and put a lot of effort into it. He made a little purse with a bear sticking out of it and then he wrote little messages on hearts and put them in the purse! I thought it was fantastic! Another boy made a "frog purse." It had a little handle, which made it a purse, but it was in the shape of a frog head and when you opened it, the note was on the tongue! How cute is that?!
Here are some pictures. See if you can spot the letters I talked about:
Good-bye Miss Val - I will miss you!
-Ms. Damron-
Oh! And before I forget, on the last day she was there, Ms. Val gave me a sweet present. She gave me some fake yellow roses because she knows those are my favorite. She also framed a "Certificate of Awesomeness." It was so cute.
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