Yes, it's late, but I feel like if I get just a little sleep maybe I'll be better off than getting 6 hours and not feeling rested. It's either 9 hours of sleep or a much smaller amount-- like 4, tends to work very nicely for me.
This week has been slowly eating me alive. It's Wednesday! Almost Thursday! Really...? I'm in absolute shock. I attended the TCTELA conference in Dallas on Friday & Saturday, which was absolutely wonderful. It really helped me to refocus my attention on some important aspects of writing as well as provided some amount of enlightenment as to the nature of the craft itself. I feel like I have had very little training in teaching writing, but in some ways I view this as a blessing because I can teach myself and experiment with my students. I like to envision myself as a social scientist to some extent, I suppose that is my mother coming out in me.
One issue I am having huge problems with is the way my students treat one another. It's frustrating, I don't feel like we get as much accomplished as we could because kids come into my classroom with ugly things to say and do to one another. I hate allowing a makeshift venue for disrespect and that is what I am working against so furiously, but how can I nurture this atmosphere more effectively? I don't want to be cheesy with in the creation of a safe place, I want it to be genuine, and I want the students actively involved in peer support. I received some phenomenal ideas on classroom management at the conference I attended; however, they're most appropriate for shaping a class at the begining of the year. So, I'm looking for thoughts on how to take a week long sabatical from grammar, the TEKS, and basically most of the curriculum, in order to work on the social atmosphere of our classroom.
Maybe I should call my mom about this.
I'm done with First Year Teacher Academy! YAY! I have a free sub day coming soon enough, I need to take a menal health day to sleep. The first year of teaching really is INSANITY in it's purest form.
Well, I'm off to grade a handful of papers and finish the chapter in my new favorite book! Sleep, who needs it?
Today's mantra: "Every action has an equal and opposite reaction: so you will always get exactly what you give."
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